Making More Time In Your Games

People like table-top role playing games, but the general consensus is that a lot of the role playing has subtly turned more into combat roles than character roles. The main reason for this, I am going to posit, is pure economics. Resources, specifically.

The first resource is Time. The average time people have to game drops as they age and responsibilities kick in. The two times in your life when you have the most time to play games are at the bookends of it. For everyone else, there isn't time for a day-long delving into the lair of the dark lich. Combine this with the second resource/problem: Players, like any other actor in an economy, are rarely rational actors. These are the two biggest factors standing in the way of getting more RP in your RPG.

So, how do you get more out of your RPG?

The Public Says It Wants Compromise

Namely, they want it on the fiscal cliff. Yet, every action the public has taken gets in the way of compromise (electing a divided government, remaining blissfully ignorant about Simpson-Bowles, kicking the can down the road for decades to reach the fiscal cliff, not punishing politicians who won't even pass a budget, etc.)

Compromise requires both sides to give something up that they want, and it often requires what is given up to be a little painful for both sides. It requires parties to negotiate in good faith, and it requires stakeholders in the negotiations (that is, average Americans) to pay enough attention and hold people accountable.

If you want compromise, then vote for people who are likely to reach compromises as opposed to political ideologues, whether they be Tea Party extremists or Pelosi-wing Democrats. America will not get compromise if we keep rewarding behavior that has never, in the past, brought about compromise. Now, doing something is not always better than doing nothing, and if the something being offered by both sides is unacceptable, then the only something that will happen is sequestration.

Now, here's the interesting thing about sequestration: Like any bargaining position, you should not agree to it or make a threat unless you are willing to pull the trigger on it. You don't kick in the door to your bank and yell at them about bad service unless you are willing to cut a check to yourself for your entire account and walk to the next bank over and open up shop there, for example. So, everyone who agreed to sequestration made a sort of tacit agreement that this was a worst-case acceptable compromise if they couldn't come up with anything better.

So, just remember that if it happens, and act accordingly.

Tax Law: Eagle Art

Interesting tax question: Should art be valued what it is technically worth (in this case, the appraisers are right in my opinion: It is worth zero dollars since any sale of it is illegal) or what it would be valued at on the open, non-law influenced market? Several important folks came to my same decision: "Since the artwork couldn't be sold, logic dictated that it be listed as having zero value, which is what the Sonnabend family's three appraisers, one of them Christie's auction house, did."

Today in Sweets

Have I ever made a post and snarkily noted "first-world problems?" If not, let today be the first with some news in the world of sweets.

First, the Wall Street Journal, brings us news of something dire in the land of Starbucks. I can't think of a reason we'd be so low on such a vital product, but I do feel for those who cannot get their fix. I like that the WSJ is able to be a bit tongue in cheek about it too: "Then, a 'terrible tragedy happened,' he said. 'I placed my order, and the barista informed me that they were out. I was so distraught.'"

At least, it is tongue in cheek, right? Right? The Romenesko quote reminds me, vaguely, of the story of Russians (or Cubans, mattering on the anecdote) ruefully thinking about the ruling class's incorrect belief that there is bread in the store because they see it in their own. I kind of want to go to a Starbucks, buy a pumpkin spice latte, and then take a picture of it to this blog with a caption: "I don't even like coffee, and I got one."

But, I also don't want to start a riot.

In our second bit of news for today in sweets, MSNBC brings us one of those accidents in science that might revolutionize an industry. Namely, colored honey. Except, well, the people who stumbled upon this discovery have decided that they, well, actually hate novelties and making money, and will instead turn their noses up at the discolored, but otherwise perfectly normal honey. No, really:

"As for the M&M's-infused honey, union head Frieh said it might taste like honey, but there the comparison stopped. 'For me, it's not honey. It's not sellable,'" he said.

Think of it like when you would add food dye to water and set some white carnations in it to get pretty colored flowers. Only, instead of flowers, it is honey. Colored honey could be the wave of the future (something Sarah Hoyt on the Instapundit blog pointed out as well.) Here's my plan. Create a bee-friendly green house filled with candy plants, a la Willy Wonka.

Bam. We've protected bees, and we will be able to sell color-coordinated honey to people who may want green honey. Because it worked so well with ketchup. Look, I'm just the idea guy. But, if a bee keeper, an engineer and a candy magnate want to get together and make this idea come true, I'm only asking for 5 percent.

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Edit: Today in sweets, ice cream goes to space. It is like the world always conspires to give me the best link for any post after I hit publish. No matter. This is the internet, and I can edit to my heart's content. The coolest part of this is that the freezers storing the ice cream double for science research once it gets to space.

... Did you see what I did there?

Politicians Are Just People

Politicians are people. As people, they have flaws. Because of that, I've been thinking about our relationship to politicians after watching most of the DNC and all of the RNC. Besides the general "vote the bums out" theory and Eastwood's "let them go" line, the general idea is that we need to try and bring politicians back down to earth.

An A.P. Article on Shopping

"If I don't have a coupon or it's not on sale, I just won't buy it," says the Yaphank, N.Y., resident

Don't Buy Buggy Products

You know what I hate? I hate double clicking the InstallCoolNewGame.exe or Setup.exe whatever, letting the little progress bar fill up, then immediately crashing to desktop. I should not need to make a Computer Use check to get into your game. The barriers to entry for any product should be insanely low. Minutes to learn, a life time to master, is good design ethos. Minutes to learn, hours to troubleshoot is more a slap in the face.

Remember the Dragon Age: Origins release? How cool was that opening video? Once you got to see it, I mean. Not when the sound and video skipped, looped and crashed for reasons that required a patch.  The worst part though is that it is a pretty decent game. But, somehow, no one in their QA world tried to, you know, run the game to see if it did not work. They will tell you that PCs are hard to design for because you have any variety of conflicts that could crop up; this is something I can understand. I am sympathetic towards that plight. But, guess what? You design games. It behooves you to cross your Ts and dot your Is.

More on Fun vs. Time

Here's a very quick, unproofed post. Admitting that makes me feel a little dirty inside.

I think the fun vs. time aspect is a way people tend to measure things. That's why demos and shareware were so great back in the 90s. You could actually try before you buy. Blockbuster, for awhile, made an entire business model out of that. Now, we get very few free trials. Games that do give them out tend to be few and far between, or games like Diablo III that know they've got it made no matter what. This builds off of yesterday's post.

How Long Does a Game Have to Be to be a Worthy Investment?

That's a question I wrestle with. Here, they argue that Minecraft is a good example of a game you get your money's worth from. I don't play Minecraft, so I don't know. On the other hand, I also felt like I got my money's worth out of several short games I've played too. The sweet spot for pricing a game is difficult. This is going to be a bit of pseudo-theory, and it is also relatively light, but, long.