Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
for money. In the Pirate Game, money was certainly a factor, but fear was definitely
on our minds. We wanted to avoid getting tossed overboard!
We found out that, despite our fears, you have to sometimes risk utility to gain
utility. Pascal was afraid of risking eternal damnation—whatever he believed that
entailed. He apparently put a pretty negative utility value on it. He was willing to
risk changing his lifestyle to avoid that and garner the infinitely positive outcome.
Making the decision to buy a warranty on our seemingly doomed computer
was a simple calculation—until we pondered how much the utility of having a
working computer was really worth to us. In a similar vein, how much is it worth
to protect our barracks with a tower? Is the utility more than the simple value of
building the tower? It seemed like it was—especially when we considered that there
may be a deterrent factor to simply having one around. Even if it never gets used, if
it prevents the enemy from attacking simply because it is there, that is of great util-
ity to us.
Marci wanted to win the game of Monopoly (I think) but her utility of winning
wasn't as high as her utility of not losing. She didn't want to take the risk, so she kept
her properties to herself. That drove up the relative utilities of the properties she
held in other people's eyes. Those utilities made the asking price far more than
what was printed on the Monopoly board. Getting those properties meant potential
for the future. Just like building the tower could reduce the potential of an attack,
getting a matched property in Monopoly gave us the potential for more income
later on.
And time… we spend it, we waste it, we take damage under fire during it. Time
has a utility that often needs to be taken into consideration. The actual passage of
time, in and of itself, is a powerful factor that needs to be measured and pondered.
So… with all of the above, we seem to have found a way of placing concrete
numbers on factors in our environment. This is worth that. This is worth far more
than this other thing. On the other hand, this is nowhere near as important as those
things over there. However, another caveat is lurking about. The utility of an item
may change. Not just from one day to the next, but from one moment to the next.
From one item to the next—even if they are the exact same type of item.
Even from one chapter to the next…
Search WWH ::




Custom Search