Jason Schreier interviewed Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Friday, June 14, 2019, 20:24 (2007 days ago) @ EffortlessFury

So you're upset that a skilled person's time is worth the same as a non-skilled person's time in MMOs? You're upset that skill can't save you real world time compared to others?

No. Sort of.

I am upset that your time is being treaded as a resource to be exploited.

But how is it fair that a less skilled player must spend more time to get good while a skilled player doesn't have to anymore? This was especially exploitative in the age of Arcade Machines. You got nickled and dimed, literally, until you got good enough. The developers could've made it easier so it took less money to complete the game, couldn't they? But then you'd say the challenge is the fun part. Well, playing the game (for a currency) is the fun part. It's just that the rewards is less inherent to the gameplay. Your argument is that this is worse. Maybe so. But that doesn't make it bad, just different. Technically its a more fairly balanced use of your time as a resource when compared to skill-based challenge.

In many games, there is a sort of mechanical progression. Games get more complex or require a wider range of skills as you make your way from level to level. In such cases, you actually want to make sure that a player can handle the basics before throwing them into more challenging scenarios. So if a player isn’t skilled enough to beat a certain level, it’s generally a good thing to have them repeat it until they demonstrate that they can handle it (by beating the level)

Of course, players very wildly in their skill levels, but that’s where difficulty settings come in and help set the appropriate range of difficulty for any given individual.