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what are the *likely* stakes? what are the *unserved* stakes?

Started by droqen, October 24, 2022, 09:22:13 AM

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droqen

in what are the stakes? i concluded with the grand realization that "other people might play for different stakes than i would!"

today i'm recording the follow-up thought that there are patterns to be discovered. that is, at a large enough scale, people are predictable. from a Monopoly Rules standpoint, it's very exciting to think about this pattern:

what will people want to stake, and on what, that they currently aren't able to?

this is just a different lens on 'what game will people want to play?' but i think a very insightful and useful one... for me at this moment, anyway. it's more precise than feelings but is subjective and personally meaningful in the same way. if someone feels accomplished when they collect coins, all i know is that if i put coins in, they will make that person feel accomplished. but if i think about it through the lens of stakes: a person wants to feel rich by collecting lots of coins? (this is an awful, truly terrible example) then i can design the game to play up those stakes.
- offer expensive items that the player wants, but cannot afford yet. (the feeling of "not rich yet, but perhaps being rich is possible". deprivation.)
- reward the player with unexpected coins

it unearths deeper questions - does the player value testing their cleverness, or their hard-working nature, or something else?
- hide coins out of sight to reward the player for poking around in every nook and cranny
- hide coins according to a pattern to reward the player for puzzle-solving (korok seeds?)
- place coins in plain sight to reward the player for moving to new places
- reward the player for repeating an activity to reward the player for enjoying/replaying content