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How balanced should a game be?
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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6345553" data-attributes="member: 177"><p>Um, no. The world does not revolve around D&D. The proof that the Halting Problem is a problem was first presented by Alan Turing, in 1936, two years before E. Gary Gygax was even born.</p><p></p><p>And the level of complexity required to be impossible to prove something bug-free is surprisingly low.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And meanwhile, in the real world, even with a computer, you can't be *sure* there's no bugs (meaning, in our case, that no edge cases exist that can be exploited). </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Well, as an example...</p><p></p><p>Butter knives exist. Is anyone going to be of the opinion that they will be as good as a standard longsword or shortsword in a fight? No, of course, not. But the butter knives exist anyway. So, technically, they are a choice. This does not imply that a man with a butter knife in hand should be as dangerous as a man with an uzi in hand. So, either we must have any and every object in the game be a deadly lethal weapon*, or we must admit that, in fact, some choices are better than others.</p><p></p><p>There are games which buck this - in some FATE variants, the type of weapon you are using is irrelevant. Weapons don't do damage - character skill does damage. What weapon you use is only relevant for narrative quality. In these games, technically, a man with a Q-tip cotton swab can do as much damage as a man with equal skill with a longsword88. That's the way the game works - but it isn't entirely sensible. The game expects and requires players and GM to enforce sensibility when the game does not. And the designers are up-front about that. This makes the game useless for certain playstyles.</p><p></p><p></p><p>* See this dollop of hummus? As good as a battle axe, I tell you!</p><p>** With a flick of my finger... that dollop of hummus... um... goes up your nose and, um... gives you a deadly sinus infection in 3.2 seconds! Yeah, that's it!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 6345553, member: 177"] Um, no. The world does not revolve around D&D. The proof that the Halting Problem is a problem was first presented by Alan Turing, in 1936, two years before E. Gary Gygax was even born. And the level of complexity required to be impossible to prove something bug-free is surprisingly low. And meanwhile, in the real world, even with a computer, you can't be *sure* there's no bugs (meaning, in our case, that no edge cases exist that can be exploited). Well, as an example... Butter knives exist. Is anyone going to be of the opinion that they will be as good as a standard longsword or shortsword in a fight? No, of course, not. But the butter knives exist anyway. So, technically, they are a choice. This does not imply that a man with a butter knife in hand should be as dangerous as a man with an uzi in hand. So, either we must have any and every object in the game be a deadly lethal weapon*, or we must admit that, in fact, some choices are better than others. There are games which buck this - in some FATE variants, the type of weapon you are using is irrelevant. Weapons don't do damage - character skill does damage. What weapon you use is only relevant for narrative quality. In these games, technically, a man with a Q-tip cotton swab can do as much damage as a man with equal skill with a longsword88. That's the way the game works - but it isn't entirely sensible. The game expects and requires players and GM to enforce sensibility when the game does not. And the designers are up-front about that. This makes the game useless for certain playstyles. * See this dollop of hummus? As good as a battle axe, I tell you! ** With a flick of my finger... that dollop of hummus... um... goes up your nose and, um... gives you a deadly sinus infection in 3.2 seconds! Yeah, that's it! [/QUOTE]
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