Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
13
Factor Weighting
In Chapters 7, 8, and 9 we discussed various methods of measuring utility. More
importantly, we discussed that measurements of utility are a core component of
the decision-making process. It behooves us to examine how we can measure,
track, and adjust utility in a manner that is clean, efficient, understandable, and
easy to use.
When I confessed some of the intricacies of my caffeine usage earlier in the topic,
it would have done you, the gentle reader, very little good for me to say that I “like
pop.� You would have no idea what that means in the wider arena of likes and dis-
likes. Even if I were to say that I like pop “a lot,� you have no frame of reference.
Does that mean “more than average�? More than I like rutabagas? More than I like
watching football? How close is “a lot� to “more than I could possibly like anything
in the world�? Or is it more along the lines of “yeah… I suppose I wouldn't mind
having a pop�? Without a frame of reference, many of our statements are lost in the
inherent vagaries of language.
I
MPOSING
A
RTIFICIAL
L
IMITS
Even when the words are very specific, we have to take them with a proverbial grain
of salt. My sister, for example, has met “the funniest guy ever,� seen “the funniest
show ever,� and eaten “the best sushi ever,�—and done all of them numerous times.
In fact, she can manage to experience any one of those superlatives in startlingly
rapid succession. (She once heard three “funniest joke ever� candidates within a
two-hour period.) My conclusion is that she is either extraordinarily fortunate in
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