OOoooo...

[julzerator]

Fun Factor = Interesting Decisions / Actual Time Played.

I want to see the other 4 as well.

(Thanks for sharing wakko)

[EDIT] It looks like Part two with the other 4 has already been posted.

Comments

[lordsaphon]

This is a really good post... I don't think I've seen someone put into specific words the feelings that I tend to feel.

I always loved Resident Evil, but the restricted save thing bugged the bejeezus out of me. That's why I like RE4 so much, that they took that aspect out.

I'm interested in the other 4 too... any chance you can post a link when she puts them up?

[julzerator]

Sure! I will definitely share the link... it is too nifty not to.

[julzerator]

Ooo!! Part 2 is there too!

http://www.designer-notes.com/archives/2007/08/8_things_not_to_2.htm

(and Soren is a boy)

[nbarnes]

The people over at Bethesda need to keep #2 in mind when making more Elder Scrolls games. I am SO TIRED of requiring > 30 mouse clicks to barter for the price of one piece of trash loot.

[theonlymegumegu]

Hmm, while I'm not trying to contradict 2, I hope the author has been told there *is* a "sell all of item X" option in Etrian Odyssey... ^^;; I have a feeling they thought, as I did, that the button sells *all* your inventory, when in reality, it sells all of the item you have highlighted. I do think there should be some sort of auto avoid for fights you really don't need to play (like a group of lvl 50 characters still triggering random battles in a lvl 1 creature area...).

Avoiding fights

[zargon]

What's needed for that is basically setting up everyone in your party with a default attack action (swing that weapon!) and an option "Attack Everything In Sight With Previously Set Up Default Attack" somewhere at the top level. Usually by about level 3 you should be able to take on level 1 encounters without needing to micro-manage.

I played some lame game yonks ago where I got to the point where I could take on anything on the first level with narry a scratch but the first step I took in the next level down I got *SLAUGHTERED*. It was back to the first level and innumerable encounters that were just too damn easy to be bothered with, but still needed micromanaging every step of the way. Not really that much fun.

[neoliminal]

"7. Black box mechanics"

I actually completely disagree with this assessment. Some players like to play game mechanics and some like to play game spirits.

For example, if there were a baseball simulation where team that wore pink got a bonus... every player who knew this would have pink outfits. But if this were not "known"... and there was a story element about "the pink team", then someone might play the pink team even though they would get ragged on for doing it.

My point here is that knowing how the game works on the backend is perfect for some people and pure hatred for others. I don't like the idea that some geek spent 20 days with an excel spreadsheet figuring out the exact mix of pikemen, archers, and knights. I want to command my troops and give orders... I don't want to know attack values and defensive values. That takes away from the genre.

You think Sun Tzu knew the blood pressure of his troops?

[wakko]

Umm... I think you've missed his point.

He says that there's two levels of information that players look for, and they're both important.

He hasn't said that one is better than another. He didn't say that one is more vital than another. He wasn't talking about replacing one with the other.

All he's pointing out is that *both* are important, and that there has been a trend to not provide both sets of information.

It's the Final Fantasy syndrome. Most recent Final Fantasy games (especially XI) go out of their way to give you zero information about the underlying mechanics. This is seriously flawed game design and creates games that can be more frustrating than fun.

I don't want to spend two hours empirically testing if weapon A does more damage than weapon B simply because the game doesn't tell me that weapon A does 5 points of damage and weapon B does 10 points of damage.

[neoliminal]

There are two levels of information and I don't think I've missed his point

[wakko]

Exactly. We agree that they exist.

All Soren was pointing out is that there has been a recent trend in video games to NOT serve both types of players. Serving as much of your customer base as possible is a vital part of any business. Video games are no different.

So, allowing players to choose the amount of mechanical information they want is a vital part of game design.