Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9777963" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>It <em>is</em> worth noting that, consistently, statistics from video games indicate that, for most games, players overwhelmingly (like more than 4:1) favor "good" options over "evil" ones when they're put to the choice. Good example, there's a dog in the <em>Dragonfall</em> campaign of <em>Shadowrun Returns</em>, and he belonged to the PC's friend who perished in the opening. He sometimes comes to you for comfort, as a dog missing his human would do. You can choose to be mean to him or nice to him.</p><p></p><p>For about 2/3 of the game, that's all it is, the occasional scene where you can be nice to a dog. Then, when your home base is under attack....it turns out he's half-hellhound and can kick some butt. If you were more nice to him than mean to him, he'll help fight. He's not particularly strong and can't wear most equipment, being both magical (which makes augmentation difficult/harmful) and not humanoid. But he <em>is</em> helpful. The efficient option, for min-maxers, is to be mean to him so you can fight him and get more XP. Something like ten times as many people have the achievement for recruiting him than those who have the achievement for killing him, even though a single game can easily accommodate doing both things without restarting.</p><p></p><p>That's far from the only example, it's just one where I've seen the data with my own eyes. Every time data of this kind gets reported, the pattern remains strong.</p><p></p><p>Yes, <em>some</em> people see the freedom of the TTRPG space as a chance to "cut loose" and do all the hedonistic, violent, selfish, horrible things they can't do IRL. But the vast majority, backed up by <em>actual</em> statistics and analysis, genuinely strive to be good people, perhaps even <em>better</em> people than they are/have been IRL.</p><p></p><p>"People" is a distribution, there will always be some in the extreme tails, and the bigger the population, the more extreme outlier examples you expect to see. But it turns out, video games actually reveal that most people want to do good by others, even when the rewards actually do favor being evil.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9777963, member: 6790260"] It [I]is[/I] worth noting that, consistently, statistics from video games indicate that, for most games, players overwhelmingly (like more than 4:1) favor "good" options over "evil" ones when they're put to the choice. Good example, there's a dog in the [I]Dragonfall[/I] campaign of [I]Shadowrun Returns[/I], and he belonged to the PC's friend who perished in the opening. He sometimes comes to you for comfort, as a dog missing his human would do. You can choose to be mean to him or nice to him. For about 2/3 of the game, that's all it is, the occasional scene where you can be nice to a dog. Then, when your home base is under attack....it turns out he's half-hellhound and can kick some butt. If you were more nice to him than mean to him, he'll help fight. He's not particularly strong and can't wear most equipment, being both magical (which makes augmentation difficult/harmful) and not humanoid. But he [I]is[/I] helpful. The efficient option, for min-maxers, is to be mean to him so you can fight him and get more XP. Something like ten times as many people have the achievement for recruiting him than those who have the achievement for killing him, even though a single game can easily accommodate doing both things without restarting. That's far from the only example, it's just one where I've seen the data with my own eyes. Every time data of this kind gets reported, the pattern remains strong. Yes, [I]some[/I] people see the freedom of the TTRPG space as a chance to "cut loose" and do all the hedonistic, violent, selfish, horrible things they can't do IRL. But the vast majority, backed up by [I]actual[/I] statistics and analysis, genuinely strive to be good people, perhaps even [I]better[/I] people than they are/have been IRL. "People" is a distribution, there will always be some in the extreme tails, and the bigger the population, the more extreme outlier examples you expect to see. But it turns out, video games actually reveal that most people want to do good by others, even when the rewards actually do favor being evil. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily
Top