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So
What's the Point So, where does this leave us? Well, if there's one thing that I want designers to realize is that technological change is not an easy thing to understand and model. As I'm sure most have realized by this point, technological change happens as a result of the interaction of many different cultural variables. Not only do these variables, some of which I've discussed above, react differently with one another in a given society, they vary tremendously between societies. Designing a logical in-game technological progression based on realistic cultural processes is a very tricky thing. Designers need to seriously take into account all the permutations and combinations of variables necessary for technological innovation. Further, designers desperately need to realize that for in-game technological innovation to happen, some of the direct control must be taken out of the hands of players. Technological change needs to be influenced as much by internal variables as player choice. While not immediately obvious, many of the variables would ultimately be the direct result of player choices (or the result of the combination of a series of player choices). Pulling this off would obviously be tricky. A game will quickly become boring as all hell once the player has only a minimum of input. So, a balance needs to be struck between fun and reality (not that reality isn't fun...but you get my point). Above all, technological change has as much to do with public sentiment, political climate, and national values as it does with personal creativity. As a result, designers need to start thinking about how a society would react to player mandated technological innovation. We've got to start moving away from the situation in which the player hits the "Industrial Revolution" button and several turns (and a fixed amount of capital) later...wham, the Industrial Revolution. How would the average shmo feel about being forced to work in a factory for eighteen hours per day? Would they riot? If so, how would such rioting affect the society as a whole? Would it damage the economic system? Would it damage the societies' ability to defend itself from foreign enemies? There isn't any real simple answer. However, it's my hope that when designers explore these sorts of questions, God Games will only get better. Ethan
Watrall, an archaeologist by training, is currently doing his PhD at
Indiana University. He spends most of his time either sitting at his
computer wishing he were in Egypt or working in the Egyptian desert
wishing he had a computer. Any suggestions to his eternal dilemma can
be sent to ecwatral@indiana.edu.
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