[MUD-Dev2] [REPOST] Soapbox: World of Warcraft Teaches the WrongThings by David Sirlin

[David Kennerly]

Paolo Piselli wrote:
> The most significant result of this study was that enjoyment is based more
> on proximity to a performance "sweet spot" just past the win/loss
> threshold rather than on learning effects.  Combining my results with 
> Kevin Burns' information-theoretic model for enjoyment , I conject that
> "fun" is based on goal-satisfaction under the conditions that the desired
> outcome is uncertain.

Although marginal success is not the only requirement, I agree that marginal
success is one of the requirements for fun.  The conjecture sounds like a
refinement of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's hypothesis of flow, which is sorely
in need of detailed definition.  

Congratulations on checking with reality!  I'm sure it was hard work, but
the hard data is appreciated.  Such data is needed to advance knowledge in
the cognitive science of interactive entertainment.

I'm not sure I follow what you mean by "desired outcome is uncertain."  That
sounds like a blanket statement that has many lumps.  I'd guess that not all
"uncertainties" are created equal, and some models of "uncertainty" are more
entertaining than others.  To this end, a system of game mechanisms that
originally appears to be uncertain, yet has an underlying logic that may be
learned, would remain fun as long as the challenge of manifesting the
desired outcome remains difficult enough that even with dedicated skill the
result is uncertain.  Thus the game is certain, yet by player skill versus
intrinsic challenge, the satisfaction of the goal is uncertain.

-- David