Category: General

We have several commenters on the last post citing the problem as “overthinking”: optimization is sort of prisoners’ dilemma, in which optimization (defection) takes the fun out of the game, but if you don’t optimize (cooperate), you’ll be excluded from some significant portion of the game/community. By this logic, everyone would be happier playing with each other and not worrying about optimization, but once someone brings a gun to the knife fight, you have to too. There is a tension here.

On the one hand, I am very much on the record as being against games that use big numbers on monsters instead of an interesting challenge. You only need optimized characters if the encounter is tuned to need optimized characters, and this optimization usually involves lots of grinding and hey this kind of thing is why I am on MMO hiatus. One part of the tension is whether the game itself actually calls for optimization, or at least accessing some significant portion of the content does, at which point non-optimizers are self-excluding by that decision. They are not playing the same game as everyone else, and if they complain about not being invited to groups that would wipe because they are there, well, it’s a DPS check boss, bring the DPS or stay home.

On the other hand, I am very much with the view of playing with friends for fun. That’s kind of why we’re here, or should be, because “achievement” in the MMO sense is mostly a false sense of achievement. At that point, though, what game you’re playing is mostly irrelevant as long as it does not get in the way of fun, which most MMOs do with level differences and several other things, so you would be much happier playing something else with your friends. If the fun is playing with your friends, and you are bringing the friends, the game itself is not carrying much of the weight here. It’s just an excuse to be in a chat room together.

On the gripping hand, there is non-optimization and then there is just being lousy. You don’t need hardcore theorycraft to see that some people are just really bad at really easy games, going beyond “I don’t care about optimization” to “I don’t care.” The tank who won’t use a shield, the guy who is using gear from 20 levels ago, the folks who like to see big numbers and why are you whining about group mechanics: there are degrees of sub-optimal, and once you’re on that slope, internet arguments will typically deliver you into the hands of people who show up to raid without any potions. As a reasonable human, you can probably strike a balance, but get 5 or more random humans on the internet, and how likely are you to strike a reasonable mean between “you must have this gearscore to come” and “complaining about the naked tank is just rude.” (I’ve played with people who never trained the best abilities for their classes because it went against their “character concepts,” which is fine if you warn people at the start that you are intentionally sub-optimal.) You and your friends may have a reasonable mean within your group, but then we are back to your bringing your own friends and so why would it matter what anyone else thinks if you are not going to be grouping with them?

: Zubon

Ethic, I can still get annoyed remembering the */Radiation Controller who joined us on the Sewer Trial and mocked the notion that she should have taken any of the Radiation toggles. I was checking builds and ready to boot people for a month after that.

Blogs are useful for the discovery of serendipitous information. There are plenty of news sites, and many blogs will repeat the same stories. The big value add is having someone else who will highlight just those things you are likely to care about; once you have found that you have similar tastes to Ethic, following his pointers is a big time-saver. Beyond that, once you have established similar tastes, you can try tangential items that you might not have tried or even heard of if not for this one dude you know on the internet with similar tastes. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, really? (Hence Amazon’s “people who bought/looked at this also bought…”)

But the opposite is useful, too. Once you know that some movie reviewer is a doofus who you always disagree with, you can start using his reviews as a guide, just with the scores reversed. It is really hard to find your perfect opposite, but when you do, treasure him. I have someone on my RSS feed specifically because he reliably gets really excited about games that will crash within three months of release. I need to find his equivalent for the stock market.

: Zubon

Civilization V uses policies where previous editions had civics or governments. They function as little talent trees for your nation, and one great virtue is that they have no drawbacks. You no longer pick a government type that receives more production at the cost of less science or an economy that is good for guns but not butter. You just pick “more production” or “good for guns.”

Invisibly baked in is that “less science” and “bad for butter” are the default states. There are bonuses for production or science, and when you pick production, you do not pick science. Balanced around this, the effect is the same, but the player is happier because there is no visible penalty. In MMO-land, designers have learned to give a buff for eating rather than a debuff for not eating; the math is the same, but the psychology differs.

The trade-offs are more visible in the mutually exclusive policies. There is a pair and a trio, and you can pick only one from each set, but the other five are open to everyone. Do you prefer hard-coded mutual exclusivity or just the exclusivity caused by having limited choices?

Civ V also uses a soft cap for policies, with increasing culture costs for each, rather than a hard cap. The game will not run long enough for you to unlock 42 policies, so the potential for another is always there.

: Zubon

It is the weekend, so I can play Civilization. I have learned that it is bad for my sleep schedule to do so during the week.