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Legends & Lore 09/03 - RPG design philosophy
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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 6011921" data-attributes="member: 54877"><p>My guess is that most "positive" views of imbalance are based on the idea of unpredictability by clouding the parameters, rather than any particular interest in balance or imbalance, per se. This complexity by obfuscation.</p><p> </p><p>Sure, you've got to have a certain minimum complication of parameters to get there, else Candy Land might be more compelling than it is. Once you clear that rather low hurdle, though, you'll have some people that will find something like Stratego or Risk more interesting than Chess, because of the "spy" or "Australia" or whatever. (And in fairness to Risk, more than two players does put a real spin on the complexity.) </p><p> </p><p>This is kind of what I was getting at with my three tightrope scenarios. Having an unbalanced pole versus a balanced pole doesn't really change anything, but if you throw enough things like unbalanced poles into a game, you can cloud the parameters enough to make the game seem more involved. (That's the extent of the technique in Stratego, which is why it can appeal early to some people, but fades rapidly under any kind of critical scrutiny or repeated play.) OTOH, to use a pole that magically changes balance every few seconds introduces real complexity to the problem, but do too much of that, you get something that starts to become more like calculus than play (for many people).</p><p> </p><p>So a great game is all about having real complexity, but picking it's complexity carefully. It's not merely having balance or imbalance, but where and when you have it, and how much. The ode to imbalance is a rejection of that thought, and I guess an appeal to just throw more elements out there to complicate matters, willy-nilly, and that will somehow be more interesting.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 6011921, member: 54877"] My guess is that most "positive" views of imbalance are based on the idea of unpredictability by clouding the parameters, rather than any particular interest in balance or imbalance, per se. This complexity by obfuscation. Sure, you've got to have a certain minimum complication of parameters to get there, else Candy Land might be more compelling than it is. Once you clear that rather low hurdle, though, you'll have some people that will find something like Stratego or Risk more interesting than Chess, because of the "spy" or "Australia" or whatever. (And in fairness to Risk, more than two players does put a real spin on the complexity.) This is kind of what I was getting at with my three tightrope scenarios. Having an unbalanced pole versus a balanced pole doesn't really change anything, but if you throw enough things like unbalanced poles into a game, you can cloud the parameters enough to make the game seem more involved. (That's the extent of the technique in Stratego, which is why it can appeal early to some people, but fades rapidly under any kind of critical scrutiny or repeated play.) OTOH, to use a pole that magically changes balance every few seconds introduces real complexity to the problem, but do too much of that, you get something that starts to become more like calculus than play (for many people). So a great game is all about having real complexity, but picking it's complexity carefully. It's not merely having balance or imbalance, but where and when you have it, and how much. The ode to imbalance is a rejection of that thought, and I guess an appeal to just throw more elements out there to complicate matters, willy-nilly, and that will somehow be more interesting. [/QUOTE]
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