Tanada wrote:The game designers back then made games to challenge the player, make them prove themselves better than anyone else playing the same game. Games written starting in the Aughties are no longer written that way, modern game design is for everyone to win. If there is a puzzle and you get stuck the game starts dropping hints on how to beat it, and if that doesn't work the internet offers detailed information on how to beat every stage and step of the game. Games used to be like life, if you invested time your reward was doing better than your buddy who was also playing. Now they are just designed as a virtual world where no matter how poorly you achieve eventually you make it to the end goal. The only competitive games left are the multi-player games.
Two things T:
#1, thanks for your description of the change in the system of loans back in 1913. Subconsciously, I think we all knew what happened, but you put that event into words that are easily understood. Well done! That said, I honestly don't know which system to consider superior to the other. It's a debtor's prison v Repo Man conundrum. The prior system did prevent people from living beyond their means, for the most part. On the other hand,.......well, i'll stick with that hand, for now.
#2, regarding the new template for writing computer games, well, the first thing that came to my mind was the absolute insistence of educators across the US demanding that "Everyone is a winner! Recognizing everyone as a winner is essential for the development and maintenance of personal self-esteem." In other words, our teachers have dumbed down our curriculum so that everyone feels good about themselves for "winning."
When I lived in Chile, I attended colegio (high school) as a senior, AFTER I had already graduated high school here in the States, and AFTER I had already attended one semester of college. I went back to high school, which was great because academics and getting a passing grade in anything absolutely did not matter. I failed English! While I was there, though, during the last quarter of the school year, the character and behaviors of ALL of my classmates changed dramatically. This change in their behavior was never present in my classmates here in the States during the same time-period of the school year. My Chilean classmates had University entrance exams to prepare for! These exams were vastly different from the standard ACT and SAT exams seniors take to get into college here in the States. Up here, entrance to a university is almost considered an entitlement, especially at a public university. Down there, not so. Public universities were very difficult to get into. That's where the public money went, and the public demanded only the best of the best. They didn't waste their money on educating the wannabes. That job was left for the private universities. Most of my classmates did pass their exams. A few did not, and failure in that endeavor was devastating to them. But, life went on. They decided to study a useful curriculum, either in a trade school, or a private university. Failure was not the end of the world.
Getting back to the American system, our educators treat failure as the end of any possible future for their students. Passing even the easiest exams is critical for every student's future. Failure is not an option, unless, of course, the student decides to drop out of school. In that case, out of sight, out of mind.
I guess what I'm ending up doing here is equating our educational system to the indolence of our educators. Everyone passes! Everyone "deserves" the self-esteem to be considered a winner. We'll lower our educational standards to ensure that every student graduates with their head held up high, full of useless BS. After high school, those clueless masses are the responsibility of our legal and welfare systems.
There was a time when education in the US actually meant something.
Tanada wrote:If your real life has challenges you feel ill equipped to meet like working and paying rent how seductive is it to spend all your spare time in a game where the system is designed to give you ego boosts no matter how poorly you play?
Millenials!