Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
As we can see from the results, heating up some burritos is our selected
cena de
noche
. By analyzing the chart, we can see evidence of the weighted sum in action.
First, we can reflect on the somewhat depressing fact that it is the selection that we
least
desired (right along with the
kung pao
chicken). However, because we were
more interested in the time factor, the quick availability of the burritos had a sig-
nificant advantage. The combination of having to drive to pick up our Chinese and
the fact that it is a little more expensive seriously reduced the overall utility for the
take-out food.
Similarly, as we had suggested above, desire alone is not the only factor in this
decision. Despite a craving to go out for steak that is
double
the utility of the sec-
ond-place food (pizza), because it is the slowest and most expensive option, it
dropped to last on our list. Put another way, regardless of how much we would have
liked to eat steak at our neighborhood restaurant, our current priority structure
(
time
>
price
>
desire
) did not allow it.
You Don't Always Have to Eat at Your Desk
For the sake of completeness, let's assume that I have finished writing this topic
(thereby freeing up my schedule) and that, because my publisher has anticipated
that it will sell 500,000 copies, I receive a massive check from them. (OK… 500,000
is a stretch, but run with me on this, would ya?) Obviously, our priorities for a
celebratory dinner would be different from a typical night of writing and program-
ming. To reflect this, we now weigh our utilities with the following numbers:
time
1
price
1
desire
4
For the sake of example, let's assume that our utilities for desire, price, and time
have not changed, nor have the relative prices of the four selections. They taste the
same to us, they take the same amount of time to prepare or acquire, and they cost
the same as they did before. The only change is in the
priority
of how we view those
three factors.
Using the new formula,
our results are now:
