Quote:
Originally Posted by jman4747
I didn't say you weren't but clearly there's not enough in general. How's having easier challenges in the game any more inspirational? Being stuck at a one point goal doesn't feel or look any better. Small challenges have small rewards and that's not inspiring. Having challenging challenges gives you more to shoot for and gives you a reason to keep improving.
|
Small challenges are not inspiring
to you. That's okay, because they're small to you. They are not small to everyone, and failing at personally insurmountable tasks isn't inspiring. Have you ever helped a team get a consistent low goal score? It 'feels' (and quite frankly, looks) a lot better than consistently missing the high goal, or sitting there because you don't have the mechanism. It can be an important contribution. Success that you did not otherwise have is inspiring.
That doesn't mean stop striving, but it does mean you've achieved something you previously could not. Why do we have progressions in real life? Just let 4th graders take the ACTs all the time, they're scores will eventually get better. We don't, because there's other value in tracking lesser progress and providing interim goals that are still valuable.
The GDC has a difficult job doing this for a huge spectrum of team abilities. No joke. But they have done it before, even consistently. This year, the plot of Game Mechanic Difficulty vs. Inspiration/Contribution is...unique. That's why we end up with discussions like this, and others about how to help teams contribute, and cheesecake food fights, and tethered boat anchors. These are not community effects; they're game ones. They change with game design, and there are good things about this year's curve. This really isn't one of them.