Decoupling player appearance from progression

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Sunday, March 31, 2013, 14:56 (4036 days ago) @ Xenos

Eh, that's not the point. Imagine living your life where you never made your own goals, but instead tried only to meet goals set by others for you. What kind of life would that be? So why do we accept that when we play video games for fun?

Because it's still my choice whether I do it or not. If the challenge sounds fun, I go for it, if it doesn't, screw it.

And how does your ability to choose mitigate the perversion that a deeply ingrained player investment system creates to the game mechanics?

That was not the argument this started with, you called going for achievements or player investment goals "obedience" disagreeing with someone stating it was fun. I'm not arguing whether it hurts games, I'm disagreeing with the idea that just because it can be used to manipulate players it cannot be fun.

Connect the dots. It's all related.

If you were actually able to freely choose which challenges to undertake, then a player investment system is not necessary, and no damage is done to the game.

But you aren't really able to freely choose, since ingrained player investment systems tie into your ability to play the game and must be undertaken in one form or another since they themselves become part of the mechanics. Achievements are mostly harmless since they truly can be ignored, but what's being built for Destiny isn't.