Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
9
Relative Utility
There is still one problem that we have yet to solve with regard to utility and
marginal utility. While we can now express differences in importance between
one item and another item of the same type, the numbers that we have been
using so far have often been abstract. What does a utility of 100 on my first can of
pop mean? We know that it is twice the utility of my sixth can of pop (50), but what
does it mean when compared to my utility for salsa, for instance?
As we examined the potential uses for multiple thresholds when building our
armies in Chapter 8, one of the reasons we cited for pausing the building of soldiers
was so we could potentially build
other
things that were more important at the
time. How do we know if something is more important? How much more impor-
tant is it? Would we have built the tower over our barracks in Chapter 7 if we had
needed the resources to finish one final soldier for our patrol? For that matter,
would we have built the relatively unimportant final soldier in our town defense
force if we needed those resources to build the tower?
Utility and, by extension, marginal utility are only valuable when they are put
into a comparative context. As we have discussed, to compare things, we need to be
able to measure them. More importantly, we need to measure them in such a way
that they can be compared to other measurements. The advantages of money and
time are that they can be measured in some form—for example, dollars and cents
or hours, minutes, and seconds. Production of a manufacturer can be measured in
the number of units—and compared to the dollars we are paying the manufacturer
and the price we are receiving for the unit. The efficacy of a fertilizer can be mea-
sured in the growth of the plant in inches or in the output of a crop in bushels. This
can be compared to the price we pay for the fertilizer and the price we receive for
the bushel. Many things can be empirically measured in some form or another.
However, plenty of considerations go into making a decision that can't necessarily
be counted up and compared. Some things just don't lend themselves to being
measured in so distinct a fashion. People have certainly tried it before, however,
and those attempts merit a closer look.
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