tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6865333240965380293.post1723664432683311722..comments2022-11-01T08:47:26.640+01:00Comments on The Brooding Designer: Serious fun with games?: Your balancing act: How to find the balance between risk and rewardAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02819962195500314597noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6865333240965380293.post-76858394467867435062012-12-10T16:13:39.450+01:002012-12-10T16:13:39.450+01:00Thanks for your post Samuel! You're absolutely...Thanks for your post Samuel! You're absolutely right that this dynamic can create some strong emotions in the user (HULK SMASH). <br /><br />What games have been unsuccessful with regards to this dynamic... That's actually a difficult question. Because there are many different ways how it can go wrong, and they depend heavily on the user. In League of Legends for example, the risk/reward dynamic only works when you are playing against opponents of your own skill level. If they are much more skilled, there is more risk, and little reward. <br /><br />A few ways of ensuring that it does work, is to stimulate the user even if they do fail. This can be done by gaining levels (in rpgs), or passing checkpoints (in action games). However, games that don't do this, such as hardcore games like Dark Souls, or Super Meat Boy, aren't bad games, they are just for a different kind of audience. <br /><br />Now, there are some games that do have some silly related features... Fable 3, a game in which there is little reason to try different attacks/spells, as just pressing the basic attack button is all you need (and you will gain the maximum rewards). FTL (a recent sim-esque game) features certain events that can gain you big rewards, or cost you a lot. But the risk is so high, that it sometimes can cripple your entire runthrough (which may take up to 30-40 minutes) and the rewards are usually quite meh. Rogue-games should be hard of course, but the rewards should match the risk.<br /><br />I hope this answers your question! <br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02819962195500314597noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6865333240965380293.post-14169351266166157882012-12-10T10:27:37.451+01:002012-12-10T10:27:37.451+01:00Nice post. I think it is true that this risk/rewar...Nice post. I think it is true that this risk/reward dynamic is very important for creating strong emotional responses in the player, more so in the absence of a story such as in League of Legends, or more extremely in Poker.<br /><br />I think in Mass Effect, because it is so story-driven, it is not so important, because the options are there more to make you feel like you are role-playing a certain character who is nice or is evil. Recent games try to reward both paths in a similar manner, so the player does not feel like one is riskier than other I think. It's more a matter of allowing different styles of play.<br /><br />In your opinion what games have tried to focus on the risk/reward dynamic, but have done so in an unsuccessful way? This is, too much risk for too little reward or the other way around.<br /><br />Samuelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01998404681238676964noreply@blogger.com