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<blockquote data-quote="Jeremy Ackerman-Yost" data-source="post: 5145823" data-attributes="member: 4720">Almost certainly.&nbsp; I think it's much more directly applicable to character creation, of course.&nbsp; Now that I have a few minutes.....When you can choose from 10,000 different starting combinations of class/race, you should be able to find the &quot;right one for you.&quot;&nbsp; When presented with this wide set of choices, most people profess to be happy about having options.&nbsp; But as you move forward, whenever something rubs you slightly wrong about how it's playing out, the average human being comes to the conclusion that there is something wrong with the choices they made.&nbsp; &quot;There were thousands of possibilities!&nbsp; One of them had to be right.&quot;&nbsp; This leads to unhappiness with the state of affairs, and unhappiness with the choice you made.&nbsp; Frequently, this anger is redirected at someone proximate.&nbsp; Your DM tricked you into it, WotC didn't make the class right, WotC made it look better than it actually played, etc.&nbsp; Over time, there's simply cognitive dissonance generated by the fact that you had &quot;perfect&quot; choice, but at the end of the day, nothing is ever perfect.&nbsp; The expectation of perfect choice cannot be fulfilled.But when you have only 12 possible combinations... you select one and are more likely to &quot;roll with the punches&quot; when things rub you a little wrong early on.&nbsp; Over time, &quot;making the best of it&quot; leads naturally into actually being happy with it.&nbsp; You went in with no illusion of perfection to be punctured, and are more likely to focus on the positive.There are many experimental designs that shape up that way.&nbsp; A couple books and several TED talks have examples.Of course, there's always the small percentage of the population who operate in precisely the opposite way.&nbsp; These people are vanishingly rare.And here I thought the discussion was finally getting interesting.&nbsp; Sub-games for each of my axes would be fulfilling.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jeremy Ackerman-Yost, post: 5145823, member: 4720"] Almost certainly. I think it's much more directly applicable to character creation, of course. Now that I have a few minutes..... When you can choose from 10,000 different starting combinations of class/race, you [i]should[/i] be able to find the "right one for you." When presented with this wide set of choices, most people profess to be happy about having options. But as you move forward, whenever something rubs you slightly wrong about how it's playing out, the average human being comes to the conclusion that there is something wrong with the choices they made. "There were thousands of possibilities! One of them had to be right." This leads to unhappiness with the state of affairs, and unhappiness with the choice you made. Frequently, this anger is redirected at someone proximate. Your DM tricked you into it, WotC didn't make the class right, WotC made it look better than it actually played, etc. Over time, there's simply cognitive dissonance generated by the fact that you had "perfect" choice, but at the end of the day, nothing is ever perfect. The expectation of perfect choice cannot be fulfilled. But when you have only 12 possible combinations... you select one and are more likely to "roll with the punches" when things rub you a little wrong early on. Over time, "making the best of it" leads naturally into actually [i]being[/i] happy with it. You went in with no illusion of perfection to be punctured, and are more likely to focus on the positive. There are many experimental designs that shape up that way. A couple books and several TED talks have examples. Of course, there's always the small percentage of the population who operate in precisely the opposite way. These people are vanishingly rare. And here I thought the discussion was finally getting interesting. Sub-games for each of my axes would be fulfilling. [/QUOTE]

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