Ripples in the Blogophere
Michael Abbott, who writes a blog called The Brainy Gamer, has a new post that strikes the same chord that our own Charles Berkeley Miller often does, musing on the design and culture of sports and intimating how it might overlap with digital game design. Abbott’s post is about the joys of keeping score in Baseball, and he wonders aloud if maybe some video games, specifically RPGs, wouldn’t benefit from more openly embracing their numerical side.
It’s a nice idea, that whole scoring a baseball game thing… but really no one just starts scoring games without having someone who has done this for years teach you the ropes. Baseball scoring is a dying tradition as really it was a way to keep fans busy and engaged at the ballpark… now, ballparks offer jumbotrons and pounding dance music. As for applying the formula to RPGs, it might be a novice approach to keep any one “watching” an RPG more engaged, but not sure it would help a player… i mean isn’t the game supposed to keep its player engaged on its own? you definitely don’t see players scoring a game inside the dugout.