[PATV] Tuesday, August 2, 2011 - Extra Credits Season 1, Ep. 23: Choice and Conflict

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[PATV] Tuesday, August 2, 2011 - Extra Credits Season 1, Ep. 23: Choice and Conflict

This week, we look at the many different ways choice exists in games.

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Pippykins

after listening to about 5 of these in a row, I finally got some creativity and motivation back to finish this damn animation project for school, another hurtle on my quite way into the video game industry. something I haven't had all week, thanks guys.

RTLShadow

This is EXACTLY why TF2 does so well. They don't offer 'concrete' better items, i.e. more attack speed/damage. Some have perks, or are better for different things.

Trivial_Punk

Another excellent video, but as a seasoned WoW player, specializing in tanking, I do have to disagree with one point of your analysis. While the talent trees in the previous expansions have been mostly calculation-based (a problem they've recently tried, once again to rectify), many of the gear and glyph choices in the mid-tiers were areas that required a lot of consideration. I've healed, dpsed and tanked, and each one presents problems of temporality. I think I may have made that word up.

But, on the whole, I mean that there's always an amplitude problem to be solved. For instance, when it comes to tanks, there are often serious choices to be made between avoidance (which will increase the chances that you don't take damage) versus the ability to soak damage (through an increased health pool or armor/resistances, which reduce incoming damage) Furthermore, there's the problem of Vengeance, which is a buff that increases your damage (therefore your threat) and scales off of your health pool and how much damage you've taken in the last few seconds. Now, in a single encounter, that's not much of a problem. There's usually a best-scenario set that can be used to deal with any given encounter. However, when I build a set, I build it for optimal efficiency under all the encounter types and scenarios I can think of. Occasionally, you can out-avoidance yourself, losing threat in the long run, resulting in timer problems (bosses that enrage after a certain period of time, because dps had to back off so they didn't steal threat) or even flat-out wipes, but you want to be able to stay alive through some pretty violent onslaughts. On the flip-side, a lack of avoidance will increase the damage you take to unsustainable levels. You may have plenty of threat, but corpses don't hold aggro very well, either. Then, there are healer stamina and dps to consider, as well. Time is the element that leaves you making some pretty important decisions, even if you're not aware of them. Of course, that relies on your understanding of the background mechanics, but does being ignorant of a choices really excuse me from having made it? That's beyond my point.

Under most circumstances, a general set will be okay, but there is a ragged edge. When you and a new guild are assaulting some new content, and you're just at the minimum requirements, or if you're challenging the really hardcore stuff, you have to consider these scenarios, because time is limited. Hell, even if you're just in the early stages of gearing up and you're not sure what to stack, there are optimal solutions to problems, but nothing that remains generally optimal. I've spent a good twenty minutes considering the advantages of 1% chance to parry and 1.5% expertise versus a 2% chance to dodge, because they both have minor effects on my efficacy as a tank. And, as any player will tell you that's grappled with content that's just within their scope, every little bit helps. It's a percentile and calculate-able problem, but in its interaction with time and the players, it gains a real life-force, breathing in failures and exhaling victory.

coalczar

While this is incredibly nit-picky, I have to disagree with the "calculation" example about friends selling video games. If it were two friends offering to sell video games, you now have social and relational consequences of buying from one friend over the other. That alone makes it too complex to be a calculation.

Again, nit. pick. (sorry)