Reasons for GGG's design decisions for RNG gated content
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I'm totally at odds and haven't got a clue what's going on. There are a gazillion ways to make content fun and challenging, yet GGG thinks it's best to gate content behind RNG, replace challenge with one-shot mechanics, and tell the fun to go fuck itself. Sorry for language, I'm just verbalizing.
But the questions is why. WHY!? The psychological answer: Fixation. They are fixated on RNG. They just cannot let go of it. That, and the game economy. Totally paranoid about the game economy. If there is a remote chance that something messes with the game economy, it must not be allowed live. So, fixation. There is a branch in psychology called Transactional Analysis, dealing with 'transactions' and 'interactions' between people. There we find the so-called 'Why don't you/Yes, but' game. Applied to GGG the game goes like this: GGG: I wish people wouldn't rage/quit over our RNG gated content! PLAYERS: Why don't you stop doing it? GGG: Yes, but we have to have a currency sink! PLAYERS: Why don't you make another currency sink? GGG: Yes, but we also want you to play very hard maps! PLAYERS: Why don't you just make the maps hard? GGG: Yes, but then anyone can progress if he's good enough! PLAYERS: Why don't you just let it happen? Isn't that what playing games is all about? GGG: Yes, but ... I don't know, LEAVE ME ALONE!!!! As you can see, a clear fixation. There is no getting through to them. The slightly-far-fetched answer: RNGesus exists. He is an actual divine entity, and GGG knows it. Their moving to a new office only happened so that they can build an even larger shrine dedicated to him. Their ultimate goal is the erection of a 300 feet statue overlooking the harbour of Wellington. The game design answer: Don't know. It's not THAT useful as a currency sink, it pisses people off, it favours favouritism, it forces people to trade, it divides the playerbase, it puts a highly random element into a competetive game that should be about skill, knowledge and playtime. So, um ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, in conclusion, the only reasonable explanation for GGG's wildly irrational behaviour is their fixation. Why are they so fixated? Because they are afraid. Afraid that all hell breaks loose if they let go of it. Afraid that they might mess up when they try to implement a new system. That it's too big a step, and once committed to it they cannot go back. Because, if people leave in droves because they don't like the new system they have to stick with it. They're afraid because they're not 13 anymore, and changes scare them. So they put their fingers in their ears, close their eyes and go, "NANANANANA, WORkING AS INTENDED!". I'm sorry, I know this is brutal, but someone had to say it. Last edited by Jojas on Jul 30, 2015, 10:25:12 AM
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RNG gated content? Explain.
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The only people who see RNG as a detriment are those who rely on it the most. Informed players make use of efficiencies and tools for wealth generation to obtain what they need and rarely ever rely on RNG.
As for GGG's design decisions with RNG it is the most rational choice for any game of this nature. It's called a variable reward schedule and it is the core psychological mechanism for reinforcing addictive behavior. |
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QQ
I love RNG. go play some other game. | |
" Whoever doesnt love RNG in ARPGS,they shouldnt play one. And btw,you have more than enough deterministic things already in game. The fact that no one right now speaks of drop rate and solo vs party,is another indication drops are in good place. So,its really phycological thing.Not the one you referring though.Its called perception Bye bye desync!
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Every time I feel like going Atziri (~you know, for the hell of it, loosely defined as fun) I need to invest absolutely unknown time of labor (~running low level zones and hunting fragments).
OR. I buy them. So. The content is not entirely RNG gated. You either play the roulette (~RNG) or you trade, actually mix of both. The design intention is super clear. You either invest time or currency. Currency in turn vaguely translates to time as well, but you have to engage in economuh. And that is, I believe, what GGG wants us to do. They do not want us to act like "bots", running around all by ourselves, they envision (and, in some sense, enforce) the player barter interactions to be part of their game. | |
" Because it's an ARPG like, you know, Diablo 2, Titan Quest etc, not a MMORPG? Hope it stays like that. | |
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We play games like this to overcome hardship. It's evolution. Our species is designed to thrive on that feeling we get when we beat some obstacle. That's why games are fun for us. They mimic survival in the wilds before even language was invented. We get a little bit of juice every time we beat something.
So, they make things challenging for us. The nature of the challenge isn't that important. It's just as important to us to try our best to remove challenges from our lives. That's why you're posting. You think that less challenge would be good for the game. It wouldn't be. GGG knows this and that's why you feel they're not willing to listen to you. They do. They just know better than to act on your requests. |
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" That's not entirely true. Take Tetris as an example. Wouldn't you say that it would be detrimental to the game if it relied solely on RNG, i.e. you had no way of influencing how the pieces fall? As for the variable reward schedule you mention, it only works if the rewards come with a satisfying frequency. A bird pushing a button and getting food only once every thousand attempts will stop pushing the button. As would humans. A certain measure of RNG can be great but it has to have the right ratio between "win" and "fail" to be experienced as satisfying. This ratio is different from person to person, probably too a much greater extent than it is with birds, but for all species it is true that a too long string of "fails" leads to them quitting and going elsewhere, especially in the case of PoE if the goal is fun and not avoiding starvation. A lot of the fun in ARPG's comes from the feeling of progression, either material with gear, or immaterial with level-ups. And if that goes away, if you keep on doing the same thing over and over again without getting anywhere, it becomes less fun. And sooner or later the other things that are fun - the action, the thrill, etc.- become less fun too, and then people quit the game. If GGG can reach enough people who are satisfied with the map system to keep their company running, good for them. Especially if they are truly convinced that RNG gated content is the best thing ever to happen to ARPG's. I don't see it, but other people and GGG seem to. But maybe they are wrong. Maybe if the map system keeps up as it is now, more and more people will start to fall away. And maybe that can be prevented or even reversed with a new and different map system, one that does not rely on RNG but on investment of knowledge, time and skill. | |
" It's not about less challenge, it's about less RNG when it comes to progress. I honestly don't see the challenge there: Playing a lot, buying/selling the right stuff, using the right currency to get the right affixes on maps, play the maps, if need be, carefully. What's hard about that? |
