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Kicking the tires vs. puncturing the tires; being effective vs. breaking the game
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9112594" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>I don't think it does make that assumption. All it says is that we cannot presume a 1:1 connection of the kind asserted, that <em>reliably</em> games that are more "unbreakable" are also less interesting. That doesn't mean there's no connection at all. But it does mean that we can't leap from "this is more unbreakable" to "it <em>absolutely must be</em> less interesting."</p><p></p><p>And yes, certainly, the more <em>potential</em> areas you have to create problematic results. Keyword: <em>potential</em>. But potential need not become <em>actual</em>. Which was my whole point. It is quite difficult to design a good, intricate/textured, open-ended, balanced game. That's a lot of requirements, and all of them bring their own difficulties. But something being difficult doesn't mean that it's impossible. There are plenty of things that are exceedingly difficult but which get done every day--or things that were once "impossible," but which we now know to be possible, you just require the right tools, training, etc. (Consider AEDs, which save the lives of a couple thousand Americans every year--people who, even as little as sixty years ago, would have almost certainly been considered impossible to save.)</p><p></p><p>I can't speak to your standards, of course. But to blanket reject the possibility seems premature. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mertens_conjecture" target="_blank">Mertens conjecture</a> is a good reason to be cautious about heuristic reasoning like this. Large amounts of statistical, computational evidence suggested that the conjecture was true (that the absolute value of a certain very slowly-growing function never grows beyond sqrt(x) for any positive integer x). Then someone proved that a counterexample occurs somewhere in absolutely enormous numbers, we're talking numbers with <em>many</em> more digits than there are particles in the universe....and later, someone else proved that there are <em>infinitely many</em> values that are counterexamples.</p><p></p><p>Or, if you wish to be more pithy:</p><p><em>There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,</em></p><p><em>Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9112594, member: 6790260"] I don't think it does make that assumption. All it says is that we cannot presume a 1:1 connection of the kind asserted, that [I]reliably[/I] games that are more "unbreakable" are also less interesting. That doesn't mean there's no connection at all. But it does mean that we can't leap from "this is more unbreakable" to "it [I]absolutely must be[/I] less interesting." And yes, certainly, the more [I]potential[/I] areas you have to create problematic results. Keyword: [I]potential[/I]. But potential need not become [I]actual[/I]. Which was my whole point. It is quite difficult to design a good, intricate/textured, open-ended, balanced game. That's a lot of requirements, and all of them bring their own difficulties. But something being difficult doesn't mean that it's impossible. There are plenty of things that are exceedingly difficult but which get done every day--or things that were once "impossible," but which we now know to be possible, you just require the right tools, training, etc. (Consider AEDs, which save the lives of a couple thousand Americans every year--people who, even as little as sixty years ago, would have almost certainly been considered impossible to save.) I can't speak to your standards, of course. But to blanket reject the possibility seems premature. The [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mertens_conjecture']Mertens conjecture[/URL] is a good reason to be cautious about heuristic reasoning like this. Large amounts of statistical, computational evidence suggested that the conjecture was true (that the absolute value of a certain very slowly-growing function never grows beyond sqrt(x) for any positive integer x). Then someone proved that a counterexample occurs somewhere in absolutely enormous numbers, we're talking numbers with [I]many[/I] more digits than there are particles in the universe....and later, someone else proved that there are [I]infinitely many[/I] values that are counterexamples. Or, if you wish to be more pithy: [I]There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.[/I] [/QUOTE]
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