Psychology vs.
Structure: The Power of Numbers in Game Design
Speaker: Dave Mark (President and Lead Designer at Intrinsic Algorithm LLC)
--
The most important part of any presentation: “Gratuitous use
of cats”
Pinning You Down
·
Never give an ‘anchor’ to questions in QA
·
When buying things, no-one likes A = B, but
people love A = A-
o
‘A’ is an internet book, ‘B’ is a real book, and
‘A-‘ is the internet book and the real book
o
A buyer doesn’t want ‘B’, and maybe doesn’t want
‘A-‘
·
Percents are better! Don’t use plain numbers
·
Words/amounts to use in scoring:
o
Thousands and OK, millions are cool
·
Granularity affects perception -> use whole
numbers
o
Don’t use percents/fractions
·
Numbers after the 1st comma are
commonly ignored
·
Quality is ignored when something is free
·
The ‘Almost’
o
‘Almost’ refers to $0.99, $8.99, etc
o
Makes the buyer say ‘It’s not really a dollar…’
·
Classy things do not use cents
o
Save money or get quality
·
Stating costs in a public scene is impolite
·
Giving something for free is better than using a
reduced price
·
Use ‘Gifting’ to make other people gladly take
what you have to offer
o
Don’t give a price value
o
Don’t give actual money
·
Owning something makes something more valuable
mentally for the owner
·
Arbitrary thresholds keep people going
o
Player with $90K wants $100K when keeping the
$90K is a better option
·
We want bigger rewards!!
·
Low reward -> higher actual reward score
o
Ex: higher game combo makes game harder
therefore lower score
·
High HP feels better than damage reduction
o
Taking ‘free/nullified’ is better than having
higher HP
·
Time spent in lower health ranges is scarier!
o
Damage taken being based on health gets this
result (high HP = higher damage)
Suggested reading material
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