New twist on the life game idea

Mare Kuntz · 2001-12-09T12:23:30

There's been a lot of discussion in this forum about was a perfect and completely complex life simulator game or god game would be like - how much realism would be a good thing, would this king of game even be fun to play, etc. Here's a different angle to get at this from: Assume life IS a game. A MMOsim, if you will. Assume also please that there is no afterlife, because we cannot scientifically observe such a thing so we can't make any logical conclusions about it. Now assume that life has a scoring system (call this emotional economy), and that you act to maximize your score all the time, usually without noticing. For example, you are nice to your friends out of habit, but this has the indirect benefit of them continuing to express approval of you, and when you feel this approval you feel good about yourself - you make an emotional profit. Conversely, if your friend yells at you you feel bad about yourself and take an emotional loss. There are assorted other psychological needs and drives that are rewarded this way. How do you lose the game? Ignoring natural or accidental death, you can lose the game by going emotionally bankrupt - getting so depressed that you go catatonic or commit suicide. More forces are at work here: you can't just keep stacking up an emotional profit. Why? Because your emotional balance undergoes a radioactive-type decay over time toward your average mental state. This average differs by individual brain chemistry and personal philosophy, varying from mild displeasure through boredom to contentment. So what do you think? Silliness, or useful theoretical model? Can anyone add any details to this construct? edit: spelling of loose corrected to lose to prevent bishop_pass from getting overexcited Edited by - sunandshadow on November 16, 2001 12:22:25 AM

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by sunandshadow November 15, 2001 08:08 AM

10 comments, last by sunandshadow 22 years, 4 months ago

Diodor

517

December 08, 2001 01:01 PM

Happy is a state of mind, not a measure of success. Christian saints are _happy_ by definition.

Napoleon on the other hand was driven his entire life by ambition and he ended it betrayed by all his generals (the very men he made famous and rich).

I''d say saints were happier than Napoleon. I''d say he deserved a higher score than the saints. (The saints may disagree however.)

That''s why I''d want an unified scoring system that could be applied to both Napoleon and a saint. Power seems to work: just add the raw power of the people influenced by the saints (lots and lots of humble Christians) and the raw power of the men influenced by Napoleon (millions of brave soldiers, and the terrified world).

diogames.com

Andrew Nguyen

150

December 09, 2001 12:23 PM

Hmmmm....

Andrew Whips out the old Prolog to C++ converter!

Yes, it''s true,
there should be
a Java-Python-C++ language called Japyc
or (Jah-PIC)

---START GEEK CODE BLOCK---GCS/M/S dpu s:+ a---- C++ UL(+) P(++) L+(+) E--- W++ N+ o K w(--) !O !M !V PS- PE+Y+ PGP+ t 5 X-- R tv+ b+ DI+ D G e* h! r-- !x ---END GEEK CODE BLOCK---

New twist on the life game idea

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

New twist on the life game idea

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

Reticulating splines