This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Ununnilium: Remind me to edit this entry later; I've got ideas for it, but I can't focus on game theory that closely at the moment without being distracted from this C++ program.
Mith: Don't think I'd necessarily count MMORPGs. Typically they have their growth structures set up so that the more powerful you are stats-wise, the longer it takes you to get more powerful. Skill will give you an initial boost, but you'll stabilize at a couple levels ahead of someone else putting in equal time. (Equipment loss as a death penalty is a great example, though.)
- Obadiahthe Slim: Well when you consider those that grind up the hardest bosses or highest Pv P (if pvp ladder gear exists) will have a much greater advantage compared to those that don't. Case and point: New area is release in World of Warcraft. Those with raid gear breeze through it. Those who don't have it find it much more challenging.
- Still... in one Civ 3 game, I had no oil in my borders. But the guys next to me had some — but they wouldn't give me any. So I waged a long and costly war against them for no reason other than that they had oil and I wanted it. I remember being really amused at the unplanned realism.
- Are you so sure it's unplanned? Always seemed to me that the mechanic existed primarily to create a temptation for starting wars.
- Interestingly, I played Portugese on Terra map. The western continent was inhabited by barbarians, who had horses...
Tanto: Conversation In The Main Page; this is all very fascinating, but it's out of place in the body of an entry.
Speaking of which, how about No Child Left Behind?
Eric DVH: I've always felt this is the big weakness of U T2k 4's Onslaught mode, since the team with even slightly more nodes gains such a massive advantage that contention and rallies are impossible, making the rest of the game is really just a show. I don't think I've ever seen a serious Onslaught game online that I couldn't call the outcome of within seconds of all the nodes being built.
Eakin: Unstable Equilibrium is a really generic title for this trope. Anyone else think we should change it to something clearer? Skewed Difficulty Curve or something similar?
BRPXQZME: I could suggest something along the lines of Hercules Hates Your Guts (in allusion to the tale of Hercules and the Wagoner
where the Aesop is "God helps those who help themselves": a guy's cart gets stuck in the mud, so he asks for Hercules' help, and not only does Hercules show up, he also says, "look, bud, could you at least try to pick it up yourself?"; however, if Hercules hates your guts, you are trying and really could use his help). But the reference is stretched enough that I don't think anyone would get that.
