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What does winning or losing have to do with ANYTHING?

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  • What does winning or losing have to do with ANYTHING?

    It looks like the standard fan response these days is becoming "You only whine because you can't beat the game." Or some variation thereof. And I don't even understand what does it have to do with anything. Does winning automatically make game good, or wth?

    I mean, let's say I make a game. Let me give you the code in Java. It has a GUI and everything, too

    Code:
    import java.awt.*;
    import java.awt.event.*;
    import javax.swing.*;
    
    public class Game1 {
        private static JFrame mainFrame;
    
        public static void main (String args[]) {
            mainFrame = new JFrame();
            mainFrame.getContentPane().add(new JLabel("Congratulations! You won!"));
            mainFrame.pack();
            mainFrame.show();
        }
    }
    You don't have to be a programming genius to see that it's not even possible to lose at that "game". No matter if you even played a game before or not, or for that matter if you even saw a computer before.

    Let's try version 2:

    Code:
    import java.awt.*;
    import java.awt.event.*;
    import javax.swing.*;
    
    public class Game2 {
        private static JFrame mainFrame;
    
        public static void main (String args[]) {
            mainFrame = new JFrame();
            mainFrame.getContentPane().add(new JLabel("Too bad! You lose!"));
            mainFrame.pack();
            mainFrame.show();
        }
    }
    This time the "game" is so hard, that noone wins. You can't even cheat to win. W00t! It must mean I have a good AI! I'm the AI programming master! NOT.

    Now a third version:

    Code:
    import java.awt.*;
    import java.awt.event.*;
    import javax.swing.*;
    
    public class Game3 {
        private static JFrame mainFrame;
    
        public static void main (String args[]) {
            mainFrame = new JFrame();
            if (Math.random() > 0.5) {
                mainFrame.getContentPane().add(new JLabel("Congratulations! You won."));
            }
            else {
                mainFrame.getContentPane().add(new JLabel("Too bad! You lost."));
            }
            mainFrame.pack();
            mainFrame.show();
        }
    }
    This time it's perfectly balanced. There's a 50% probability to win or lose. In marketing speak you could say it provides a balanced challenge for any player.

    But is any of my 3 "games" actually worth playing? Is the simple probability to win or lose enough to make a game great, in and by itself? NO. All of the 3 "games" plain old suck. They're not even really games. I can't imagine anyone who'd want to play either of them for fun.

    So the moral of the story is: it's not whether you win or lose, it's the way there that matters. Whether I win or lose at Civ 3, it still doesn't mean I have to like it. Deal with it.

    And the second moral of the story is: just because you lost, doesn't mean the AI is great. See my second "game" example. Does it mean I have some advanced AI in there? No. I just cheat. I make the player lose, no matter how well he plays.
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