Quote:Original post by Telastyn
…if a player wants to neuter their entertainment by reloading until their guy hits, they're just going to get a trainer or some other cheat anyways.
Quote:Original post by KestQuote:Original post by jbadams
A player who wishes to be challenged can choose not to make use of this feature
If you give players some kind of power, they're going to assume they're meant to use it.
Quote:Original post by Schrompf
The misdirection is basically the following: there's is absolutely no need to be "fair" to the computer.
Quote:Original post by Edtharan
I would say it depends on the player. If the player wants to maintain the intent of the designer, then they won't abuse this to cheat. However, if a player wants to cheat, they can use it, or they will use some other method to do so (so you will not stop a cheater this way).
I’d have to agree with the fact that if a game provided a certain mechanic, then using it to “cheat” wouldn’t be cheating at all, for the mechanic was designed and provided to you by the developers; so you are only perhaps cheating the original game design intention. And if doing so is indeed considered “cheating” the game experience, then what we would have is a contradictory (or a poorly designed) game in the end. Such as reloading your game whenever you come across a surprise attack to which takes away half of your health, so that the next time you try that scenario again by reloading a previous saved game you are prepared for them and thus walk away with full health. It wouldn’t become a surprise attack if you played the game all the way through a second time definitely, but the point is that when you come across the surprise attack on your first time, taking its damage to which weakens you should and could be considered part of the memorable game experience that you continue to keep and walk away with to your next in-game confrontation, not something you avoid with a save file reload.
This is perhaps what makes multiplayer games so popular – there are no save or reload mechanics, and every decision you make in a game you have to take its consequences and use them to adapt and launch new strategies based upon your new condition, for better or for worse. Everyone always wants to be successful and in tip-top condition in a single-player game, but there could be lots of good gameplay to be had when you are forced to cope with a loss or handicap and use it somehow to adapt and adjust your strategies appropriately. Many single-player games do just that – literally have a segment in the game’s storyline where they force you to become handicapped (such as taking all of your weapons away) to which could not have been prevented in a save-file reload. If a game has to create unavoidable instances in a game such as these just to provide that sense of challenge to which was supposed to be distributed throughout the game, then isn’t that just making up for a bit of contradictory game design?
Then you’d also have to address the issue about how players should treat their games – whether they should follow the design intention of the designers or not. Of course players would all treat the same piece of software differently, but I would have to say, in my opinion, that if a designer designed a game with a particular set of intentions and saw that his/her players played the game much differently from his original intent of use, I would say that he had personally failed despite whether or not the product he created became a popular success – how can you rely on the same person to design another successful game with specific goals unless he follows his same old formula that he established, rigidly?
People, IMO, will judge their experience with their product according to the purpose that the designer intended. If it is explicitly stated that a game is to be played like a software toy, then people will judge their game experience by playing the game like a software toy. If it is explicitly stated that a game is a single-player military strategic FPS, then that is what expectations people will bring into the game.
[Edited by - Tangireon on June 25, 2008 9:27:15 AM]