June 2002
- In defense of "soloability" ceo@grexengine.com
- In defense of "soloability" Coyote
- Article: Furniture Whores and Debit Card Toilets J C Lawrence
- Multithreaded sockets Draymoor a Vin il'Rogina
- Multithreaded sockets Sean Kelly
- Multithreaded sockets szii@sziisoft.com
- Multithreaded sockets Bruce Mitchener
- Multithreaded sockets Dave Richards
- Multithreaded sockets shren
- Fwd: programming books Thomas Leavitt
- ADMIN: MIME and this list J C Lawrence
- Striving for originality Matt Chatterley
- Striving for originality Sasha Hart
- Striving for originality Matt Chatterley
- Striving for originality szii@sziisoft.com
- Striving for originality shren
- Striving for originality John Buehler
- Striving for originality John Bertoglio
- Striving for originality Edward Glowacki
- Striving for originality John Bertoglio
- Striving for originality Kwon Ekstrom
- Striving for originality Damion Schubert
- Striving for originality Matt Chatterley
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality John A. Bertoglio
- Striving for originality Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Striving for originality Damion Schubert
- Striving for originality Rudy Fink
- Striving for originality shren
- Striving for originality John Buehler
- Striving for originality Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Striving for originality John Buehler
- Striving for originality shren
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality John Buehler
- Striving for originality Travis Casey
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Striving for originality Rudy Fink
- Striving for originality Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Striving for originality Damion Schubert
- Striving for originality Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Striving for originality Edward Glowacki
- Striving for originality shren
- Striving for originality Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality John Buehler
- Striving for originality shren
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality Ron Gabbard
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality caduvall@glue.umd.edu
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality Rayzam
- Striving for originality Travis Casey
- Striving for originality Matt Chatterley
- Striving for originality Kwon Ekstrom
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality Edward Glowacki
- Striving for originality Kwon Ekstrom
- Striving for originality Edward Glowacki
- Striving for originality Kwon Ekstrom
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality Edward Glowacki
- Striving for originality Michael Tresca
- Striving for originality Rayzam
- Striving for originality Kwon Ekstrom
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality Travis Casey
- Striving for originality Matt Chatterley
- Striving for originality Travis Casey
- Striving for originality Matt Chatterley
- Striving for originality szii@sziisoft.com
- Striving for originality Kwon Ekstrom
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality Kwon Ekstrom
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality Kwon Ekstrom
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality szii@sziisoft.com
- Striving for originality Matt Chatterley
- Striving for originality Fred Clift
- Striving for originality Matt Chatterley
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality Damion Schubert
- Striving for originality Marian Griffith
- Striving for originality Matt Chatterley
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality szii@sziisoft.com
- Striving for originality Matt Mihaly
- Striving for originality Sanvean
- Striving for originality Matt Chatterley
- Striving for originality Travis Casey
- Striving for originality Robin Cloutman
- Striving for originality Matt Chatterley
- Striving for originality Freeman, Jeff
- Striving for originality shren
- Memory Footprints szii@sziisoft.com
- Memory Footprints Matt Mihaly
- cloth simulation (was: What keeps people interested in social muds?) Bruce Mitchener
- ADMIN: Early thread death predicted J C Lawrence
- Offlist Matt Mihaly
- Cost/Benefit factor and The Player-driven World [ was In defense of "soloability"] Ron Gabbard
- Building community in social M**s Martin C. Martin
- Building community in social M**s Damion Schubert
- Brief point about Java memory management ceo@grexengine.com
- Creating Constructive/Social Behaviour in Online Worlds ! Marc Demesel
- ecologies and random encounters John Robert Arras
- ecologies and random encounters Paul Schwanz
- LEDO revisited (part 4) Frank Crowell
- LEDO revisited (part 4) Damion Schubert
- LEDO revisited (part 4) Frank Crowell
- LEDO revisited (part 4) Crosbie Fitch
- LEDO revisited (part 4) Frank Crowell
- software engineer: testing (was: [DGN] Creating a MUD) Bruce Mitchener
- software engineer: testing (was: [DGN] Creating a MUD) John Buehler
- software engineer: testing (was: [DGN] Creating a MUD) Miroslav Silovic
- software engineer: testing (was: [DGN] Creating a MUD) Damion Schubert
- software engineer: testing (was: [DGN] Creating a MUD) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- software engineer: testing (was: [DGN] Creating a MUD) Damion Schubert
- software engineer: testing (was: [DGN] Creating a MUD) Tess Snider
- software engineer: testing (was: [DGN] Creating a MUD) Bruce Mitchener
- Bug tracking Sanvean
- Bug tracking Matt Chatterley
- Bug tracking Ammon Lauritzen
- Bug tracking Jon Lambert
- Bug tracking ceo@grexengine.com
- The Business Side of Software Development [was R& D] Ron Gabbard
- LEDO update Damion Schubert
- LEDO update Frank Crowell
- Differentiation and The Marketing of MUDs [was R& D] Ron Gabbard
- Differentiation and The Marketing of MUDs [was R& D] Sean Kelly
- Differentiation and The Marketing of MUDs [was R& D] Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Differentiation and The Marketing of MUDs [was R& D] Koster, Raph
- Differentiation and The Marketing of MUDs [was R& D] Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- GC (was: New Beginings) Bruce Mitchener
- GC (was: New Beginings) Lars Duening
- Design iterations (Was: R & D) Brian Bilek
- Design iterations (Was: R & D) Sean Kelly
- Design iterations (Was: R & D) John Buehler
- Design iterations (Was: R & D) Jeff Freeman
- Design iterations (Was: R & D) Frank Crowell
- Design iterations (Was: R & D) Amanda Walker
- Design iterations (Was: R & D) Ron Gabbard
- Ticks? Anderson, David
- Welcome to the Jungle Jeff Cole
- LithTech Matt Mihaly
- Ownership Matt Mihaly
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) J C Lawrence
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Koster, Raph
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) shren
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Talanithus HTML
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) John Robert Arras
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Matt Mihaly
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) John Robert Arras
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Matt Mihaly
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Talanithus HTML
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) John Robert Arras
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) shren
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Vincent Archer
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) shren
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Travis Casey
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Michael Tresca
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) John Robert Arras
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Matt Mihaly
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) David B. Held
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Talanithus HTML
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Ron Gabbard
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Crosbie Fitch
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Talanithus HTML
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Zach Collins {Siege}
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Koster, Raph
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Matt Mihaly
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Brian Lindahl
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Sasha Hart
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Matt Mihaly
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Matt Mihaly
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Matt Mihaly
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Talanithus HTML
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Matt Chatterley
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Brian Lindahl
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Sasha Hart
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Brian Lindahl
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Matt Mihaly
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? (fwd) Michael Tresca
- Object Architecture Ben Chambers
- Object Architecture Kwon Ekstrom
- Object Architecture Sasha Hart
- Object Architecture Brian Lindahl
- New Beginings II [Not GC] Drylar Levre
- New Beginings II [Not GC] ceo@grexengine.com
- New Beginings II [Not GC] Sean Kelly
- New Beginings II [Not GC] Bruce Mitchener
- New Beginings II [Not GC] David B. Held
- Breaking down the walls Matt Chatterley
- Breaking down the walls Brian Lindahl
- Breaking down the walls Acius
- Breaking down the walls Brian Lindahl
- Breaking down the walls Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Breaking down the walls Bruce Mitchener
- Breaking down the walls Brian Lindahl
- Breaking down the walls Crosbie Fitch
- Breaking down the walls Brian Lindahl
- Breaking down the walls Nathan F. Yospe
- Breaking down the walls shren
- Breaking down the walls Jeff Lindsey
- Breaking down the walls Bruce Mitchener
- Breaking down the walls Zach Collins {Siege}
- Breaking down the walls Matt Mihaly
- Breaking down the walls Nicolai Hansen
- Breaking down the walls Matt Chatterley
- Breaking down the walls Brian Lindahl
- Breaking down the walls Matt Chatterley
- Breaking down the walls Brian Lindahl
- Breaking down the walls David B. Held
- Breaking down the walls Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Breaking down the walls Nathan F. Yospe
- Breaking down the walls Brian Lindahl
- Breaking down the walls David Clifton
- Breaking down the walls Matt Chatterley
- Breaking down the walls David Clifton
- Breaking down the walls Zach Collins {Siege}
- Breaking down the walls Christopher Allen
- Breaking down the walls Colin Coghill
- Breaking down the walls Rayzam
- Breaking down the walls David Clifton
- Breaking down the walls Marian Griffith
- Breaking down the walls Marian Griffith
- The Future of MMOGs... Brian Lindahl
- The Future of MMOGs... Talanithus HTML
- Object Architecture [Longish] Draymoor a Vin il'Rogina
- Object Architecture [Longish] David B. Held
- Object Architecture [Longish] Crosbie Fitch
- Character Attributes in Role-Playing Games J C Lawrence
- Evolutionary Design J C Lawrence
- Evolutionary Design Sasha Hart
- Evolutionary Design John Buehler
- Evolutionary Design Dave Rickey
- Evolutionary Design Derek Licciardi
- Evolutionary Design Koster, Raph
- Evolutionary Design Matt Mihaly
- Evolutionary Design Sasha Hart
- Evolutionary Design Madrona Tree
- Evolutionary Design Koster, Raph
- Evolutionary Design danc@anark.com
- Evolutionary Design Sasha Hart
- Evolutionary Design Paul Schwanz
- Evolutionary Design Sasha Hart
- Evolutionary Design Lars Duening
- Evolutionary Design Damion Schubert
- Evolutionary Design Koster, Raph
- Evolutionary Design Dave Rickey
- Evolutionary Design Brian Hook
- Evolutionary Design Jeff Cole
- Evolutionary Design Jessica Mulligan
- Evolutionary Design Jeff Cole
- Evolutionary Design Dave Trump
- Evolutionary Design Ron Gabbard
- Evolutionary Design Derek Licciardi
- Evolutionary Design rgabbard@swbell.net
- Evolutionary Design Jeff Cole
- Evolutionary Design Derek Licciardi
- Evolutionary Design Matt Mihaly
- Evolutionary Design Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric
- Evolutionary Design Rudy Fink
- Evolutionary Design Matt Mihaly
- Evolutionary Design rgabbard@swbell.net
- Evolutionary Design John Buehler
- Evolutionary Design Derek Licciardi
- Evolutionary Design Richard A. Bartle
- Evolutionary Design shren
- Blacksnow vs. Mythic News Steve {Bloo} Daniels
- Blacksnow vs. Mythic News Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Blacksnow vs. Mythic News Steve {Bloo} Daniels
- Blacksnow vs. Mythic News Jon Lambert
- Blacksnow vs. Mythic News Rudy Fink
- Blacksnow vs. Mythic News Matt Mihaly
- Blacksnow vs. Mythic News Mark Eaton
- Blacksnow vs. Mythic News Matt Mihaly
- Is difficult communication the barrier to community in MMORPGs? (fwd) J C Lawrence
- Is difficult communication the barrier to community in MMORPGs? (fwd) Jeff Lindsey
- Is difficult communication the barrier to community in MMORPGs? (fwd) John Buehler
- Is difficult communication the barrier to community in MMORPGs? (fwd) Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Is difficult communication the barrier to community in MMORPGs? (fwd) Koster, Raph
- Is difficult communication the barrier to community in MMORPGs? (fwd) Brian Hook
- Is difficult communication the barrier to community in MMORPGs? (fwd) Talanithus HTML
- Is difficult communication the barrier to community in MMORPGs? (fwd) Mark Eaton
- Is difficult communication the barrier to community in MMORPGs? (fwd) Patricia Pizer
- Enforcement [was Striving for originality] Matt Chatterley
- Enforcement [was Striving for originality] Tess Snider
- Enforcement [was Striving for originality] Matt Mihaly
- Enforcement apollyon .
- Enforcement Matt Chatterley
- Enforcement Anderson, David
- Enforcement shren
- Enforcement Anderson, David
- IF/MUD Gameplay Ideas Opacic Patrik
- IF/MUD Gameplay Ideas shren
- IF/MUD Gameplay Ideas David Clifton
- IF/MUD Gameplay Ideas Opacic Patrik
- IF/MUD Gameplay Ideas Rayzam
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Amanda Walker
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? John Robert Arras
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Talanithus HTML
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Talanithus HTML
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Philip Mak
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Acius
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Fred Clift
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Michael Tresca
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Anderson, David
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Damion Schubert
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Draymoor a Vin il'Rogina
- Mudding and impact on academic grades David Clifton
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Eli Stevens
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Anderson, David
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Rayzam
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Koster, Raph
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Rayzam
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Kwon Ekstrom
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Matt Mihaly
- Mudding and impact on academic grades shren
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Anderson, David
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Colin Coghill
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Lars Duening
- Mudding and impact on academic grades Tess Snider
- Reality check ...(long) [was Black Snow Revisited] David Yazel
- BrendanLand Koster, Raph
- Skotos & WAP Release "Grendel's Revenge" for Public Beta Christopher Allen
- Skotos & WAP Release "Grendel's Revenge" for Public Beta Bruce Mitchener
- Skotos & WAP Release "Grendel's Revenge" for Public Beta Valerio Santinelli
- Skotos & WAP Release "Grendel's Revenge" for Public Beta Travis Casey
- Skotos & WAP Release "Grendel's Revenge" for Public Beta Christopher Allen
- Amazing list.... Talanithus HTML
- Reinventing the Wheel (was: Object Architecture [Longish]) Philip Loguinov {Draymoor}
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Amanda Walker
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Koster, Raph
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Amanda Walker
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Frank Crowell
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Amanda Walker
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? John Robert Arras
- Underlight (fwd) Matt Mihaly
- Underlight (fwd) Bruce Mitchener
- Underlight (fwd) Brian Lindahl
- Underlight (fwd) Koster, Raph
- Underlight (fwd) Brian Hook
- Underlight (fwd) Damion Schubert
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG [was The Future of MMOGs... what's next?] Ron Gabbard
- Cg - Lowering the cost of 3D games? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Cg - Lowering the cost of 3D games? Brian Hook
- Cg - Lowering the cost of 3D games? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Cg - Lowering the cost of 3D games? Frank Crowell
- Cg - Lowering the cost of 3D games? Rayzam
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Brian Lindahl
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG rgabbard@swbell.net
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Brian Lindahl
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG rgabbard@swbell.net
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Brian Lindahl
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Ron Gabbard
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Brian Lindahl
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Ron Gabbard
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Marian Griffith
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Travis Casey
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG lynx@lynx.purrsia.com
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Ron Gabbard
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Marian Griffith
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Paul Schwanz
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Amanda Walker
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG Damion Schubert
- Building a 'Deeper' MMOG [was The Future of MMOGs... what's next?] David B. Held
- Relaunching a MUD? Kent Peterson
- Relaunching a MUD? Matt Mihaly
- Relaunching a MUD? Malcolm Tester
- Relaunching a MUD? Damion Schubert
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Philip Loguinov {Draymoor}
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds David Clifton
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds John A. Bertoglio
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Jeff Lindsey
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Kwon Ekstrom
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Jeff Lindsey
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Kwon Ekstrom
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Anderson, David
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Kwon Ekstrom
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds David Bennett
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Michael Tresca
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Matt Mihaly
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Michael Tresca
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Sanvean
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Matt Mihaly
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds shren
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Dave Rickey
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Matt Mihaly
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Dave Rickey
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Damion Schubert
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Matt Mihaly
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Edward Glowacki
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Matt Mihaly
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Richard A. Bartle
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Matt Mihaly
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Blane Bramble
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Edward Glowacki
- Text Muds vs Graphical Muds Elia Mörling
- GDC 2002: Beyond Psychological Theory: Getting Data that Improves Games J C Lawrence
- GDC 2002: Beyond Psychological Theory: Getting Data that Improves Games Sasha Hart
[from paper by Bill Fulton]
> The insufficiency of formal theories of psychology.
[...]
> But academic theories of psychology don't get granular enough to
> tell us whether gamers find the handling of the Ferrari a bit too
> sensitive.
To provide answers which they aren't built to have: no one should be
surprised that Skinner's work (much of it in the areas of apparatus
design, writing of popular & controversial books with relatively
small amounts of academic content, development of terminology which
is either odd or entirely necessary, depending on your POV) has
simply nothing to say about whether the Ferrari's controls feel
right. (This is probably not very well-mannered, as the author was
probably making this nose-on-the-face point, albeit in slightly
inflammatory terms. :) ).
> But while theories of psychology from academia can be quite useful
> as a lens to examine your game, their limitation is that they are
> typically too abstract to provide concrete action items at the
> level designers need.
As in:
A) The source has boiled it down for you in some pat formula
(useful for when you just want a little question answered roughly,
not to crank up SAS for a couple hours). A description I'd apply
to John Hopson's article.
B) The theory isn't "abstract," it's insubstantial! It barely has
contact with the data, let alone modeling it in any comprehensive
sense! All too common... Just like everywhere else, there are
hacks in psychology. To be fair, there are also incredibly hard
questions and things which no one has really gotten to. Psychology
is hardly comprehensive, hardly unified and hardly mature. (Oof,
I've passed my quota of awful generalizations for the month).
> I think very few people had light bulbs go on when they learned
> that Skinner's theory of conditioning stipulates that people will
> do stuff for rewards.
Certainly Thorndike's light didn't go on, as he had put the Law of
Effect decades before Skinner really got rolling. What Skinner did
is formulate a neat argument that behavior could be studied in terms
of functional units (the lever press isn't just an arm muscle
twitch), not just S-R units (e.g. the "knee-jerk" reflex). If you
want to beat your brain out on it, read _The generic nature of
stimulus and response_. Skinner also made some gadgets for working
with animals and wrote a lot, including a ton of popularizations and
vaguely philosophical-political stuff that tend to obscure the fact
that there is real science and substantial theory out there, not
just a statement that people work for rewards (duh) or that all
behavior is for rewards (not exactly, no).
Most of it ISN'T by Skinner, some of it precedes him, and some of it
calls itself cognitive science, and ...
Take away the experimental work, the other theory AND the formalism
and you do have a "duh" idea that people like good stuff. (No
surprises there.)
> One of Hopson's examples is about how players in an RPG behave
> differently depending upon how close they are to reinforcement
> (e.g., going up a level, getting a new item, etc.). He talks about
> how if reinforcers are too infrequent, the player may lose
> motivation to get that next level. However, how often is not often
> enough? Or too often? (Who wants to level up every five seconds?)
> Both "too often" and "not often enough" will de-motivate the
> player.
I complained about this article too a while ago, but it's sad to
jump on it given how little ANYONE has written on the
subject. There are a lot of controversies and cans of worms to
avoid here and I think the article does a good job of that.
That said, I do agree that this isn't enough to do precise work
with. Unfortunately, figuring out any more requires people to do
research for free.
> Designers need to find a 'sweet spot' between too often and not
> often enough that provides the optimal (or at least a sufficient)
> level of motivation for the player to keep trying to level
> up. Theory may help designers begin to ask the more pertinent
> questions, but no theory will tell you exactly how often a player
> should level up in three hours of play in a particular RPG games.
This is in my view the top question for anyone working with
leveling, or for that matter anyone trying to get away from
leveling. Why should we care about levels at all? What makes us care
more or less?
This is just the kind of data that (IMO) would be immensely helpful
across games. Unfortunately the article goes on to recommend the
same old stuff (ask players how fun this is - useful, but not at all
general). Meanwhile I'm sure that many of us have tweaked this
parameter and have seen something about it. I'm curious if anyone
has observations on this point.
For my part, I have played games which leveled up to 1/15 min. and
enjoyed them; that's probably about as short a leveling rate as I've
seen. The problem really seems to be not that fast leveling is
particularly demotivating, but that it burns through areas
quickly. I also imagine that once the rate dropped much below once
every 5 minutes that one might just ignore it (but I don't
know). For my part, in games with levels that are more than nominal,
I find that I tend to settle in games that are about 1 level a day,
as it pretty adequately fits the casualness of my interest in those
games. I also often quit within a month, in my perception at roughly
the same reduction in level rate that generally puts me off of a
game. Of course, this isn't particularly good data, just idle
yarn-spinning.
(If anyone wants to write/contribute programs or playtest to such
ivory-tower ends, I'm going to try rounding something up this
fall. Data publicly available, etc. Long-time personal interest of
mine. Perhaps a post will follow. Write me if this sounds at all
interesting.)
> 1. The feedback should accurately represent the opinions of the
> target gamers.
Opinion usually entails what they say - but we just spent a
paragraph reading about how everyone is a wannabe designer, so how
should I read gamers' opinions? Why not consider looking at their
actual choices of one game over another, one skill over another,
etc. as an index of their preferences?
Moreover: is my only interest in what they like and don't like? What
about how easy it is to learn something, how lonely the game is?
There are a ton of kinds of feedback which aren't opinions.
> The level of feedback in the reports is extremely granular,
> because the tests are designed to yield granular, actionable
> findings.
In fact, it sounds so fine-grained that it all boils down to
questions like the one where some weapons' sounds specifically sound
dumb. Easy to act on.
Doesn't really allow for much flexibility; obviously if a suggestion
requires a redesign then it's not as 'actionable.' Pretty much
ruling out (and with good common sense) gathering useless
"theoretical" data like how much leveling is enough. Which is why we
aren't really getting it until someone just does the experiments and
shares the findings. Given the actually quite low requirements for
effectively asking meaningful questions (no 2 years graduate
research necessary), I don't see any reason why anyone who wants to
shouldn't simply build these into their games, in-progress or
ongoing.
ETS (the company that does SATs/GREs/etc.) routinely puts
experimental sections in its tests. Good information is
outstandingly cheap to us in much the same way (computers being
great measurement devices, and players already practiced with
feeding them). Really it's just taking the interest.
Sasha - GDC 2002: Beyond Psychological Theory: Getting Data that Improves Games Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- GDC 2002: Beyond Psychological Theory: Getting Data that Improves Games Sasha Hart
- Online gaming growth Matt Mihaly
- Online gaming growth Koster, Raph
- Some P.S. to the java/cross platform discussion... ceo@grexengine.com
- Some P.S. to the java/cross platform discussion... David B. Held
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) John A. Bertoglio
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Koster, Raph
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) John Bertoglio
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Richard A. Bartle
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Stephen McDonald
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Dave Rickey
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Tess Snider
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Kwon Ekstrom
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) eric
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Valerio Santinelli
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Vincent Archer
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) shren
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Valerio Santinelli
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Valerio Santinelli
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Rudy Fink
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Valerio Santinelli
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Madrona Tree
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Travis Casey
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) ghovs
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) shren
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) shren
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Valerio Santinelli
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) ghovs
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) eric
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Joel Palmtag
- It's About Time Department (Mule Characters) Sasha Hart
- Continuity of experience in movies Matt Mihaly
- Continuity of experience in movies eric
- Continuity of experience in movies shren
- Continuity of experience in movies Valerio Santinelli
- Continuity of experience in movies eric
- Continuity of experience in movies Valerio Santinelli
- Continuity of experience in movies eric
- Continuity of experience in movies Valerio Santinelli
- Continuity of experience in movies Travis Casey
- Continuity of experience in movies Matt Mihaly
- Continuity of experience in movies eric
- Continuity of experience in movies Matt Mihaly
- Continuity of experience in movies eric
- Continuity of experience in movies Matt Mihaly
- Continuity of experience in movies Sean Kelly
- Pictures from an exhibition^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HDinner J C Lawrence
- Online gaming growth -- an introduction Brad King
- The Case For Game Design Patterns J C Lawrence
- The Case For Game Design Patterns Koster, Raph
- New Skotos Columns Shannon Appelcline
- Animals, Animal Handling, and Unexpected Side Effects shren
- Animals, Animal Handling, and Unexpected Side Effects Richard A. Bartle
- Animals, Animal Handling, and Unexpected Side Effects Michelle Elbert
- Tech: Job: Shamesss Pug: P2P Graphical Mud, thinking out loud Yoshito Rei
- Threading idea Zach Collins {Siege}
- Threading idea Smith, David {Lynchburg}
- Threading idea Bruce Mitchener
- ADMIN: VC thread -- Consider Meta J C Lawrence
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Vincent Archer
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Freeman, Jeff
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? burra@alum.rpi.edu
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Jeff Freeman
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Matt Mihaly
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Koster, Raph
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Talanithus HTML
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Koster, Raph
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Valerio Santinelli
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Frank Crowell
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Valerio Santinelli
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Sean Kelly
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Xuri
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? David H. Loeser Jr.
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Valerio Santinelli
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Damion Schubert
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? shren
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Vincent Archer
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Valerio Santinelli
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Freeman, Jeff
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Sean Kelly
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Valerio Santinelli
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Jeff Lindsey
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? shren
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? shren
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Travis Casey
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Amanda Walker
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Michael Tresca
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? shren
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? lynx@lynx.purrsia.com
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Damion Schubert
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? lynx@lynx.purrsia.com
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? shren
- The Future of MMOGs... what's next? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Réf. : Building a 'Deeper' M MOG Yannick.Jean@csst.qc.ca
- GNS and Other Matters of Role-Playing Theory J C Lawrence
- Free email providers John Szeder
- Free email providers Sanvean
- Databases and scripting languages John Szeder
- Building a 'Deeper' M MOG Brian Lindahl
- Building a 'Deeper' M MOG Paul Schwanz
- Building a 'Deeper' M MOG Damion Schubert
- Réf. : Building a 'Deeper' M MOG Marian Griffith
- Réf. : Building a 'Deeper' M MOG Sasha Hart
- It's About Time Dep... Food eric
- It's About Time Dep... Food Brian Hook
- It's About Time Dep... Food Edward Glowacki
- It's About Time Dep... Food John Buehler
- It's About Time Dep... Food Paul Schwanz
- [BIZ] Console wars David Kennerly
- Free for all ceo@grexengine.com
- It's About Time Dep... Food Sean Page
- Achaea's history Matt Mihaly
- Achaea's history eric
- Achaea's history Matt Mihaly