Modest Proposal Part Deux

So, um, it turns out my cessation of AIM-related activites during work has occurred earlier than expected. Like, yesterday. I got a nastygram from the IT folks telling me to uninstall Trillian. So I did. I feel very ... isolated without my IM. So, to make me feel better, start emailing me more. Or commenting on m'blog. Gimme somethin', folks.

In the meantime, I've been thinking about my magical game-rating formula, trying to come up with a way to take some of the nebulousness out of the Q_gp factor. So I've developed a formula of sorts to calculate Q_gp. Here 'tis:

Q_gp = (I * C)^R/G

Translation:

Quality of Gameplay = (Innovation * Control)^{Replay Value} / God Factor

Notice "quality of graphics" is not included in determining the quality of gameplay. That's right. Graphics are not important.

A note on "God Factor" -- this is something that I saw on somebody's blog once a long time ago (sorry for not linking, but I really don't remember where I saw it). Basically, it's kind of a yardstick to determine how difficult a game is. The ideal difficulty level for a game is such that a god-like player would be able to play through it all the way from beginning to end without dying or being forced to start over. So, in my equation, the ideal is for "G" to be 1. As a game moves away from the ideal difficulty, G increases. A game that was literally imposssible to beat would have an infinitely high G, therefore a non-existant Q_gp. A game that was too easy would have no replay value, making Q_gp at most 1, which I think is fair.

Re: Control -- this is a combination of two things. How much control a player is given over his character and the facility of that control, and how much control a player is given over the game environment (including the camera, if applicable), and the facility of that control. More control over the character and the environment = better. What do I mean by "less" control? Think Galaga. All you can do is move left and right. Now, admittedly, technology probably had something to do with that, and that's not to say that Galaga is necessarily a bad game (although I always got bored with it real fast), but c'mon. For a more modern example, think "The Bouncer", a fucking awful Squaresoft (pre-Squenix) game for the PS2. That game was basically a bad movie with some shitty fighting sequences thrown in every now and then. Too many cutscenes = no control = bad.

*turning to glare at Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3*

Re: Innovation -- possible values are 1 - 10. 1 means it doesn't do anything new. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though -- Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is essentially a third-person adventure game with FPS stuff thrown in, but it's still friggin' awesome. Starscape is Asteroids at its core, but is super-friggin' awesome. It's pretty hard to get a high Innovation factor nowadays, but things like Gish and Katamari Damacy (although, I admit, I haven't played it yet, from what I've seen, it's got some whole next-level trippy shit going on) spring to mind.

See what happens when the Man takes away my IM? It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Geek.