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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 9228648" data-attributes="member: 29398">One objective factor - though damn hard to accurately measure - would be &quot;once people start playing a given system, how long do they stick with it?&quot;.If a huge number of people buy and play a system but none of them are still playing it a year later, I'd call that a design failure.&nbsp; The game's author and publisher would not, however, as they made loads of money selling all those copies that people only played for a year.Conversely, if pretty much everyone who tries a given system ends up sticking with it for life I'd call that an off-the-charts design success, even if the actual number of those people is quite small and thus the author and publisher didn't do very well financially out of making that game.And so there's cross-purposes at work here just like in so many other industries: the business side wants disposable, the consumer side wants permanence.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 9228648, member: 29398"] One objective factor - though damn hard to accurately measure - would be "once people start playing a given system, how long do they stick with it?". If a huge number of people buy and play a system but none of them are still playing it a year later, I'd call that a design failure. The game's author and publisher would not, however, as they made loads of money selling all those copies that people only played for a year. Conversely, if pretty much everyone who tries a given system ends up sticking with it for life I'd call that an off-the-charts design success, even if the actual number of those people is quite small and thus the author and publisher didn't do very well financially out of making that game. And so there's cross-purposes at work here just like in so many other industries: the business side wants disposable, the consumer side wants permanence. [/QUOTE]

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