Hi Dark again, You said: My point on social events was simply that there were more factors involved especially with the popularity of games like monopoly. It is quite possible for a game series like mega man, which never even featured a score system to become extremely popular on mechanics alone, despite having no two player option or even the ability to compete, an audiogames example might be entombed. Indeed as an inveterate solo player myself who loves to explore game worlds, I tend to think that while social factors might explain appeal for some games, they don't for others. (end of quote)
There is a different dynamic to human play versus solo play in a multi-player environment, or solo play on a game designed solely for solo play. However, competition still exists. One aspect of Entombed, as least initially, was seeing how your score stacked up against people on the leader board. That feature seems to be disabled now, but I know what you're saying. My point is just that I believe that games become social events due to good game design. Also too, I think one part of that design is a median point between simplistic play and complex strategy. For me Scrabble of Monopoly probably hit the sweet spot in those regards. Both as very mechanically simple: roll dice, move, pay a penalty, gain a benefit, or buy property to inflict benefits or penalties on others; or alternatively, take seven tiles, play them on a board to get the most points and block your opponents from getting more points. While both are play-wise simple, they are complex strategy wise and involve a lot more for a good player than the simple play would suggest. To use your example of solo game, Entombed is similar. On the face of it it is merely an a kick down the door, kill the monster, take the loot game. However, there are strategic choices to make from the very beginning of the game. Do you play a more burly character race that will have more hp and inflict more damage but be more limited in class choices, or do you take a more flexible race that might be faster between attacks? Do you keep your decent branch or do you go unarmed, sacrificing perhaps accuracy for multiple attacks? Do you explore every inch of every floor looking for random equipment or prisoners to join to your party, or do you just try to forge ahead? Do you choose, for one last example, to go through the goblin stronghold in hopes of getting the goblin king's equipment, or do you opt for the mine works and the elemental guardian? Further, with Entombed, you also have the option of taking subpar combinations of races, classes, etc, and trying to make them work. All of these give a certain flexibility to what in essence, though it is well designed, is a pale imitation of muds or of table top roleplaying games. I think that there were a lot of good design decisions made there. Ok, I'm done for now:) Again, always a pleasure debating with you. Jeremy -- In the fight between you and the world--back the world! Frank Zapa --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
