Chade on 25/8/2010 at 05:12
will ... not ... give ... up ...
Quote Posted by Papy
Unless you're thinking about video games from 1975, nearly all "real situations" have a lot more than two dimensions.
The number of dimensions in the game has is irrelevant. What matter is the number of dimensions being optimised. In this case there is only one: the difficulty dimension.
Put another way, if your difficulty dimension affects action sequences and puzzle sequences equally, then one person's preference for action over thought will go completely unnoticed by the optimisation algorithm.
Put another way, x*y*z is no more complex then x^3 along the line x=y=z.
Of course, that difficulty dimension is expressed in the game through changes in all the different game mechanics you mention, which interact in different ways, etc, and you still need to observe the player using all the corresponding metrics ... so it's not as simple as I'm making it out to be ... but still, restricting yourself to a single difficulty dimension does neuter a lot of complexity.
It was not obvious at all. As I said, there was a lot of talk on Bethesda's forums arguing one way or the other and it took a while before the majority agreed.
Quote Posted by Papy
Of course, we can have a long debate on semantics with this, which I think would be pointless, so just tell me the correct word to express what Oblivion did if you think this is not the definition of "to hide" and I'll use it. But you have to realize that changing the word we use to name it won't change what I think of it.
Indeed, what were we originally arguing about? I believe it was your statement that "hiding" the difficulty adjustment was one of the defining "problems" with automatic difficulty adjustment. I don't think this true, as there are games that successfully hid the automatic adjustment (or at least didn't draw overt attention to it), such as Max Payne, and to a lesser extent, KoTOR. I don't believe that people would have enjoyed Oblivion more had it told players when the monsters were levelling up ... and the same goes for Final Lap.
Quote Posted by Papy
Aesthetic alone is not enough. Except maybe for the rare player who has an enormous imagination, the fancier looking sword of a message saying : you are now level 34 is not really rewarding. The player has to feel it through the gameplay.
An easy mechanic is no longer part of the game play as it no longer requires meaningful choice. But I don't want to argue semantics. The point is, games do not reward the player by becoming easier. Individual parts of the game may well become easier, but the game as a whole will not. Harder mechanics will be introduced to replace the easier parts of the game. I do not know of anybody who has seriously argued before that games should get easier as the player progresses.
Koki on 25/8/2010 at 05:30
Christ allmighty, you're STILL going on about this?
Papy on 25/8/2010 at 11:35
I give up.
Chade on 25/8/2010 at 21:34
someone is wrong on the internet :grr:
Papy on 26/8/2010 at 02:31
Sadly, we don't live in a perfect world. ;)
