[phil] Desktop Tower Defense as a Metaphor for Everything

Aug 19, 2007 20:55

I previously linked to the flash game Desktop Tower DefenseIt suddenly dawned on me that this was a powerful metaphor for a bunch of things ( Read more... )

phil, essay

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Comments 9

merle_ August 20 2007, 02:46:24 UTC
*shudder*

I'm more partial to Onslaught 2, which is basically the same game: you build up defenses and combos, Things come in, and you are inevitably overwhelmed. Always. Quite depressing, if you look at it as a life metaphor.

But I do see what you're saying, and you are quite correct: one has to balance short, medium, and long term objectives. Letting something like finding a competent doctor slide for eight months is not good strategy, nor is (necessarily) spending tons of money for an unnecessary upgrade. Still, in the game one is destined to lose, while in life one hopes to win (whatever that might mean to the particular person).

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siderea August 20 2007, 03:08:45 UTC
Oh, Desktop Tower Defense has a winning condition. It's finite.

Of course, that probably makes it less good a metaphor for life....

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ironphoenix August 21 2007, 02:10:17 UTC
Ummm, you have examples of life1 not being a finite game?
1: Yes, I mean physical life, not anything metaphysical.

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siderea August 21 2007, 04:03:10 UTC
It's not the finitude that's the problem. It's the winning condition.

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mangosteen August 20 2007, 03:00:45 UTC
Thank you for writing this, but you've neglected one crucial aspect, that being the actual path the creeps take.

Within a few constraints (i.e. you can't stop the creeps entirely), you have complete control over the path they take. Given the tools you have, this can be a simple or complex path, giving your towers more or less time to handle the creeps. An effective path uses the minimum amount of towers* to allow for the maximum amount of shots at each creep, and in addition, will likely use a knowledge of exactly what one can and can not do with towers (as well as a knowledge of how the creeps move) in order to leverage one's resources with maximum efficiency.

* Sometimes, to construct the most effective path, one can use cheap towers in order to sketch the path out, in the hopes that one will have the resources later to replace the components of the path, piece by piece.

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siderea August 20 2007, 03:11:20 UTC
Excellent point! This is a game in which the application of knowledge makes enormous difference, and despite the general inevitability of Creeps, one has enormous power over the the situation and liberty in how one will approach the problem.

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londo August 20 2007, 04:17:38 UTC
This is an excellent demonstration of how far one can take an analogy.

Also, fun game. (Fucking Dark creeps...)

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lyorn August 20 2007, 12:34:08 UTC
I don't play compuer games, but this does fit on so many levels...

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