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<blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 5957518" data-attributes="member: 27160">I think it's interesting, too, to mull over why it's &quot;not likely to happen&quot;. Unpacking it a bit:- We say &quot;it won't happen&quot; because we can't imagine the designers making the decision and sticking to it- The likely vector preventing them doing so seems likely to be player reaction; it would be a very unpopular move- My intuition is that mostly the different damage levels are ways for the players to skew the probabilities of the systems to suit their own preferences - to &quot;win&quot; (for a player-selected value of &quot;win&quot;)In other words, I think the wish to have different weapon damage expressions is a &quot;gamist&quot; one. Which brings me to point two...I think styles of gaming, in all their several dimensions/axes, are a bit like motivations and values. What I mean here is the difference between a Value, which is something that we believe to be right through rationality, upbringing or faith, and a Motivation, which is something that actually excites us and drives us to act. People will often be open and vocal about and in support of their Values, but Motivations can be a very private, very hidden affair - possibly even denied internally by the holder of the Motivations.Claiming things about peoples' motivations is unwise for two reasons: (1) the inferences we make about motivations are often wrong, and (2) motivations are often felt to be an intensely private place, prying into which is a serious invasion of person.What should, ideally, drive design is player motivation; but the sensitivity and difficulty of detection of that will inevitably, I think, make all these discussions, to some extent, a case of &quot;groping in the dark&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Balesir, post: 5957518, member: 27160"] I think it's interesting, too, to mull over [I][B]why[/B][/I] it's "not likely to happen". Unpacking it a bit: - We say "it won't happen" because we can't imagine the designers making the decision and sticking to it - The likely vector preventing them doing so seems likely to be player reaction; it would be a very unpopular move - My intuition is that mostly the different damage levels are ways for the players to skew the probabilities of the systems to suit their own preferences - to "win" (for a player-selected value of "win") In other words, I think the wish to have different weapon damage expressions is a "gamist" one. Which brings me to point two... I think styles of gaming, in all their several dimensions/axes, are a bit like motivations and values. What I mean here is the difference between a [I][B]Value[/B][/I], which is something that we believe to be right through rationality, upbringing or faith, and a [I][B]Motivation[/B][/I], which is something that actually excites us and drives us to act. People will often be open and vocal about and in support of their Values, but Motivations can be a very private, very hidden affair - possibly even denied internally by the holder of the Motivations. Claiming things about peoples' motivations is unwise for two reasons: (1) the inferences we make about motivations are often wrong, and (2) motivations are often felt to be an intensely private place, prying into which is a serious invasion of person. What should, ideally, drive design is player motivation; but the sensitivity and difficulty of detection of that will inevitably, I think, make all these discussions, to some extent, a case of "groping in the dark". [/QUOTE]

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