[MUD-Dev] Cognitively Interesting Combat (keyword: archetypes)

[Paolo Piselli]

Sorry its taken so long to respond, the fall semester
has been getting underway...

--- Eric Random <e_random at yahoo.com> wrote:

> There is something specifically cognitively interesting about the
> construct "combat" which interests players and developers so much
> they attempt to simulate and contextualize it in a game. I think
> it's more important to look at "combat" than it is to look at
> "game". Start with archetypal properties of "combat" than abstract
> it into "game".  Puzzle Pirates, to me, is "puzzles" abstracted
> into "combat", not the other way around.

But either way you end up with gameplay that is an abstraction.  Is
it important which end you start at (combat or game) if you end up
with the same abstraction?  What I am trying to say is that if we
look at the structural features of the abstraction it could give us
clues to how enjoyable an experience it will provide.  I am open to
the idea that structurally-identical abstractions can be more or
less enjoyable depending on how they have been "dressed up" for the
user, but I am trying to look at things in a way that lends itself
ot more analysis than subjective notions of what is fun.

-Paolo

=====
Paolo Piselli
ppiselli at yahoo.com
www.piselli.com , www.bestcoastswing.com
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