Examples of this abound. To pull from WoW, there are always many ways to play a particular class. A mage, for instance, can specialize in fire, frost, or arcane. I know many folks enjoy fire the most. However, at least when I was actively playing, arcane was the only sensible option for raiding. If you tried anything else, you would be decried as a hopeless noob (again, when I was playing it was statistically difficult or impossible to do more damage with fire than you could with the arcane spec). Not only that, but you had to spec your character exactly according to a guide. Then you had to move about and cast your spells in exactly the right order, with the same timing. It was like synchronized swimming, for god's sake. So, in short, as you ratcheted up the difficulty or whatever you want to call it, individuality and creativity went out the window and it became about imitation and routine. At that point I lost interest.
Sounds like a flawed game design, but it obviously doesn't seem to bother enough people. I can see the need for a well organized strategy to succeed, but not something quite so specific. The ideal game design is always the one with many ways to achieve the same objective(s).
Examples of this abound. To pull from WoW, there are always many ways to play a particular class. A mage, for instance, can specialize in fire, frost, or arcane. I know many folks enjoy fire the most. However, at least when I was actively playing, arcane was the only sensible option for raiding. If you tried anything else, you would be decried as a hopeless noob (again, when I was playing it was statistically difficult or impossible to do more damage with fire than you could with the arcane spec). Not only that, but you had to spec your character exactly according to a guide. Then you had to move about and cast your spells in exactly the right order, with the same timing. It was like synchronized swimming, for god's sake. So, in short, as you ratcheted up the difficulty or whatever you want to call it, individuality and creativity went out the window and it became about imitation and routine. At that point I lost interest.
Sounds like a flawed game design, but it obviously doesn't seem to bother enough people. I can see the need for a well organized strategy to succeed, but not something quite so specific. The ideal game design is always the one with many ways to achieve the same objective(s).
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.