Shifting Random or Sifting Random?

Hey, how are ya?

So last time, i mentioned talking about Borderlands 2 with my next post.  I'm actually changing from that.  I want to talk about something always in front of my mind when it comes to games and gaming theory.  Unfortunately, i don't know a concise way to say it, though i blurted out something like it at the end of my previous post.

I'll go with "Choose vs Find".  Choose refers to the player deciding precisely the tools they use to interact with the world, and Find refers to content that you have little say over.  Indeed, Find refers to content that very few have sway over, save the developing entity taken as a whole.

"What?"  Yes.  The easy description is the "Diablo-esque loot system" (DELS, from here out) or any other Random.GetNext() derived reward or challenge mechanism.  That's Find.  I like to think that Find content isn't made by anyone, it's a self assembling machine.  Sure, Blizzard made the rules and all the component lists that are parsed in order to make your King's Greatsword of Haste, or what have you, but they're just values in a table.  Even if one individual (maybe more) made all the attributes that went into the table that eventually came together to make the King's Greatsword of the Wombat, they didn't make you a KGotW.  Some algorithm pulls the pertinent values from the shelf and welds them together like an automotive assembly line.  However, more like <insert least favorite auto manufacturer here>'s assembly robots, 99% of what the DELS makes is purposefully crap.  This tendency to make shit rewards is called Economy.  More on that later.

Now, Find is not just limited to content rewards.  The content itself can have the same notion of DELS.  Back to the Diablo series.  The Elite creatures had a similar concept of Enchantment-style modifiers as the equipment, and were similarly assembled by a monster version of DELS (DEMS?).  Again, individuals within Blizzard made all the creatures that came in Elite varieties, and other (maybe even the same) individuals made the various attributes that could be added to them.  However, many of the elite creatures were not created by anyone; they're still those self-assembling machines.  Also, the elites gave the creatures a similar sense of "oh, look, bigger one of X" encounters, occasionally punctuated by a near impossible challenge.  The main point is that gear made by a DELS isn't made so much as it is assembled from parts.

Now, Find is not a bad thing.  Random content pieced together creates fun, unique experiences.  Developers get to see their self assembling machines do unexpected and wild things because they have that mixing bowl of abilities and modifiers going on.  The ocean of meaningless gear and foes make the islands of real challenge and powerful items that much more meaningful.  Outside of games like Diablo, i like Find as well.  In D&D, we've had some campaigns swing very, very wildly because of random loot tables.  Remind me to talk about The Black Goo (or The Deck, for that matter).  These were fun experiences that were enhanced by the unpredictability of using Find.  So that's Find.  The developer made the parts, but they came together at random, just for you.  Now, let's talk about Choose.

Random is good.  But i tend to like Choose more.  What do i mean by Choose?  Well, the easiest description is Choose as the antithesis of Find.  Tons and tons of games consort with Choose in their development.  The Kingdom over which Choose rules is called Leveling Up.  Any game where you have some kind of persistent character progression spent at least one cold night in Choose's warm, soft embrace. Choose is when you get to decide what part of the game content you are good at, and, occasionally, the content you are bad at.  When used outside the sphere of character maintenance it's often the Currency or Crafting (which is basically currency tied to a skill of some kind).

Many games have been moving toward Choose for more of their systems.  In That One Game, you no longer need to wait for a Raid Boss to drop the item you're pining for, kill him for Valor or Justice points, then spend those on the stuff you want.  Choose favors heavily in DE:HR, or so i hear, as i haven't the time to get int there yet.  When you can choose a path in both the physical and philosophical sense within a game, that's really something i celebrate.

I've rambled on for a bit just defining my terms.  I'll come back soon and get into more detail about the ways i wish to include Choose to a greater, or different degree, and see if anyone has any neat ideas surrounding that.

-lostinthesauce

I guess i think of Find as the third side of a game.  There's the Developer and their goals, the Player and their goals, and then there's Find, just out in the field playing.