Results of Poll 6: Freedom to Fail

Comments

[Peter Crowther]

An interesting spread of responses, given your comments about your expected result at the start of the poll.

[Bezman]

65.6% of people don't want the freedom to fail, it seems.

[Chris]

Peter: yes, precisely - I was and am pleased and surprised by this result, although it must be said this was in no way a scientific instrument, but rather an intentionally spun piece of rhetoric. :)

Bezman: 65.6% of Only a Game visitors, yes, but not two thirds of people in general as the players here are not representative of the wider populace.

It's clear from the Spring Census that 90% of the people who come here are interested in game design, so we're dealing primarily with a game literate, gamer hobbyist style group of people - and even among that crowd a third of them would like freedom to fail!

I consider that to be quite significant, and I'll wager if we did have a larger representative sample, the number would be higher (although such an investigation would require something more subtle than this less-than-neutrally worded poll!)

Still, it encourages me that I am not flogging a dead horse in pursuing this - although one must be mindful that solutions to the freedom to fail problem should take into account the many hobbyists who don't need or want such a provision.

I feel convinced there are structural solutions to this problem.

Thanks for the comments!

[Bezman]

My comment was somewhat tongue-in-cheek.

Options 2&3 aren't at all mutually exclusive to wanting freedom to fail, so even within this 'game literate, gamer hobbyist style group', I'm sure the % wanting freedom to fail would be far more than the % indicated.

I still think that your mixing two questions ('what would you prefer' and 'how do you normally react') clouds the issue, leaving it a matter of personal choice which question folk answer.

[Chris]

Bezman: sorry I missed your irony; the internet has this problem expressing subtleties. :)

And I agree - this poll question was a mess. But the polls are supposed to be fun, and a spur for discussion, so I never want to spend as much time wrangling these as we have to do on the survey questions for our research - I'm sure you can appreciate the need for fun things to remain fun. ;)

I might try and form a question to investigate this more rigorously in a future survey, though... it's an interesting topic.

Best wishes!

[Bezman]

I might try and form a question to investigate this more rigorously in a future survey, though... it's an interesting topic.

I look forward to learning the results!

I'd suggest that having a choice to do X is never a bad thing - it simply allows us to play the game how we choose. However, there have certainly been times in the past when I made choices outside (or - more rarely - inside) a game that lead to a spoiler and instantly regretted it.

I wonder if some of the people against 'freedom to fail' are worried about their own will-power to follow the 'freedom to replay/succeed', when both choices exist?

[Chris]

Bezman:

There are tricky design problems to solve here... the basic problem is the one I've previously linked to game difficulty: how does the player make a decision about how they will play the game *before* they have played the game.

I believe the point of freedom to fail is that no players want to get so frustrated that they stop playing and/or don't believe they can beat the next challenge, while at the same time, some (fiero-seeking) players don't want to be denied the satisfaction (read: fiero) of beating the tough challenges.

Add to this that everyone has different play skills, and you have a very tough problem to solve.

Personally, I feel freedom to fail in the way we've been exploring it (the fail-continue structure) is totally valid - fiero-seekers can repeat challenges till they beat them, but other players can retire gracefully. Plus: you're making your decision *after* playing, so you know what you're up against. (Unfortunately, publishers - and for that matter, developers - don't seem to understand it).

It's an interesting question you raise: would fiero-seekers drop out and take the easy path, when what they would really like is to beat the challenge and win the fiero? If so, I wonder if the fiero-seeking gamer hobbyists are totally incompatible with the mass market, and the games market will have to split down two paths...

Perhaps, it already has! :)

Best wishes!