KRIMINAL99
01-02-04, 00:36
Ok each of these premises could be broken down into several smaller ones but rather than have 30 odd of them I just kept them in related paragraphs together. Im no expert at philosophical argument so if I broke any rules about what can be in premises someone feel free to let me know...
The point of organizing an argument this way is that if you disagree, all you have to do is pick a premise and say what you think is wrong with it and the discussion can be kept constructive and meaningful.
Premise 1: The game aspect of any video game (ie not the social aspect) is fun in psychological terms because the player enjoys approaching a point where they will be respected for their accomplishments, although not by any real or specific person.
Premise 2: Upon reaching that point, the sought after respect hardly ever manifests itself in reality for the majority of players. (I E through other real people recognizing the players achievments) At this point the game ceases to be fun.
Premise 3: The end point is reached when the player sees that additional effort will not progress him towards recieving more respect. In single player games this is when the game is beat because there is nothing respectable about doing that which you have already done. Single player games are given replayability by allowing for multiple drastically different ways of playing the game succesfully.
Premise 4: However, different ways of playing a game which are still very similar do not acheive this goal. For example if the sole difference in an rpg between a melee character and say a gun character is the picture of the weapon and maybe a 2 second animation than it is not different enough to make the game fun to play again. In MMORPG's this means that the end point mentioned in Premise 3 can be reached before the game is anywhere near completed. For example in AO where the only thing in the game that changes at all between level 2 and 200 are numbers. Bottom line, trite tricks are not succesful in stretching a small amount of real content into a much larger amount of content for the purpose of making the game fun longer.
Premise 5: Players consume or advance through static precreated game content at an average rate of more than 10 times that which it takes to create it. This means that in order to sustain the fun level of a mmorpg just based on single player type static content you would need more than 10x the man hours that a player put into the game. I do not believe this is cost effective, and obviously neither do mmorpg developers as is evidence by their attempted use of cheap tricks to extend game content.
Premise 6: Following from all before, the only way to cost-effectively provide a sustained level of fun is to have the player encounter setbacks or slow the player down. However to do this at any time when the player did not expect or have control over it is what psychologists call random punishment, and is about as far away from fun as you can get. To give the setback when the player DOES expect it is acceptable but usually just means that the player will avoid doing whatever it is the player will be setback for. The only time when a player will do something which might set him back is when the possible gains are worth the risk. This is gambling.
Premise 7: The only entity to date in video games unpredictable enough so that the player will not just assume he can beat it (and therefore dieing to it would be random punsihment) or that he has no chance against it (so he will just avoid it) is another player.
Premise 8: If people's perception of a gamble is that the risk is too great for the reward, then they will simply avoid the gamble. People's perception's will quickly move close to reality, but they will probably always overestimate their chances of winning somewhat. (The percieved chance of winning * the expected or average gain must be greater than the percieved chance of losing * the expected or average loss)
Premise 9: To minimize the sting of the setback to the player, the player should immediately be placed back on the normal track to gaining status in the game rather than suffer death specific time delays. If long death specific time delays are given, the association between them and the expected setback for losing becomes loose.
Conclusion: The only way to cost-effectively provide a sustained level of fun in an MMORPG is to have a PVP Based MMORPG where players take somewhat fair gambles on their battles between each other.
Afterpoints: The players must not have a just as easy alternative to aquire the wealth they could get through PVP or they will simply take the path of least resistance even though it will end up with the game not staying fun as long.
The point of organizing an argument this way is that if you disagree, all you have to do is pick a premise and say what you think is wrong with it and the discussion can be kept constructive and meaningful.
Premise 1: The game aspect of any video game (ie not the social aspect) is fun in psychological terms because the player enjoys approaching a point where they will be respected for their accomplishments, although not by any real or specific person.
Premise 2: Upon reaching that point, the sought after respect hardly ever manifests itself in reality for the majority of players. (I E through other real people recognizing the players achievments) At this point the game ceases to be fun.
Premise 3: The end point is reached when the player sees that additional effort will not progress him towards recieving more respect. In single player games this is when the game is beat because there is nothing respectable about doing that which you have already done. Single player games are given replayability by allowing for multiple drastically different ways of playing the game succesfully.
Premise 4: However, different ways of playing a game which are still very similar do not acheive this goal. For example if the sole difference in an rpg between a melee character and say a gun character is the picture of the weapon and maybe a 2 second animation than it is not different enough to make the game fun to play again. In MMORPG's this means that the end point mentioned in Premise 3 can be reached before the game is anywhere near completed. For example in AO where the only thing in the game that changes at all between level 2 and 200 are numbers. Bottom line, trite tricks are not succesful in stretching a small amount of real content into a much larger amount of content for the purpose of making the game fun longer.
Premise 5: Players consume or advance through static precreated game content at an average rate of more than 10 times that which it takes to create it. This means that in order to sustain the fun level of a mmorpg just based on single player type static content you would need more than 10x the man hours that a player put into the game. I do not believe this is cost effective, and obviously neither do mmorpg developers as is evidence by their attempted use of cheap tricks to extend game content.
Premise 6: Following from all before, the only way to cost-effectively provide a sustained level of fun is to have the player encounter setbacks or slow the player down. However to do this at any time when the player did not expect or have control over it is what psychologists call random punishment, and is about as far away from fun as you can get. To give the setback when the player DOES expect it is acceptable but usually just means that the player will avoid doing whatever it is the player will be setback for. The only time when a player will do something which might set him back is when the possible gains are worth the risk. This is gambling.
Premise 7: The only entity to date in video games unpredictable enough so that the player will not just assume he can beat it (and therefore dieing to it would be random punsihment) or that he has no chance against it (so he will just avoid it) is another player.
Premise 8: If people's perception of a gamble is that the risk is too great for the reward, then they will simply avoid the gamble. People's perception's will quickly move close to reality, but they will probably always overestimate their chances of winning somewhat. (The percieved chance of winning * the expected or average gain must be greater than the percieved chance of losing * the expected or average loss)
Premise 9: To minimize the sting of the setback to the player, the player should immediately be placed back on the normal track to gaining status in the game rather than suffer death specific time delays. If long death specific time delays are given, the association between them and the expected setback for losing becomes loose.
Conclusion: The only way to cost-effectively provide a sustained level of fun in an MMORPG is to have a PVP Based MMORPG where players take somewhat fair gambles on their battles between each other.
Afterpoints: The players must not have a just as easy alternative to aquire the wealth they could get through PVP or they will simply take the path of least resistance even though it will end up with the game not staying fun as long.