[MUD-Dev2] Specialization

[Sean Howard]

"Michael Hartman" <mlist at thresholdrpg.com> wrote:
> You realize your example has absolutely nothing to do what everyone else
> is saying, right? Nobody has said a game should grant success on a bell
> curve.

I don't remember the exact comment I was responding to, but the point of
specialization is entirely success based on the failure of others. A
Warrior can be the best with swords simply because nobody else is allowed
to be. A Paladin is good at two things, so he can't be the best at either,
because that would be "unfair" - it would break the curve. Specialization
is entirely about someone else deciding where on the bell curve(s) your
character will exist.

> But failure should be a possibility, or else the game is pretty
> empty, meaningless, and pointless.

Nonsense. I can think of a dozen games in which failure is either not
possible or non-intrusive and yet the games are no less interesting for
it. Second Life, for example. How do you fail in Second Life? What
constitutes failure in The Secret of Monkey Island? Or Animal Crossing? I
just bought Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King for my
Wii, and the requirements of success and failure are vague and essentially
ignorable (just repeat the next day and see if it works this time).


> Games have winners and losers because that is part of the whole point
> of playing.

Again, nonsense. I play games in which there are no losers all the time.
I've played RPGs and strategy games where the possibility of failure was
there, but the bar was set so low, in practice, only the absolute worst
players had ever encountered it. I've been in online communities which
where based on socialization, or cooperative building and design, of which
failure was no even possible on any level.

The field of gaming is really quite broad these days and the concept of
winner or loser is antiquated. Only the worst designers or the most
obnoxious players look for such things from gaming these days.

> Please, resist the temptation to make completely ridiculous analogies.

I'll do no such thing. It's what gets me out of bed in the morning.

> Successfully obtaining an education is of far greater importance than
> being successful in a game.

Successfully obtaining an "education" (by this, I assume you mean degree)
is a game.

-- 
Sean Howard