PIMPTASTIC-FROTH Posted:

Oh wow, not everyone is a casual gamer. Imagine that.

For some of us, half the fun is in setting goals for ourselves and completing them. Whether it’s Forumbuildr, Domination, or just figuring out the mechanics of the game, it’s a way to add more depth and challenge to the game.

Not to mention that player effort like this often helps the game’s creators improve it.

Speaking as a game designer, no matter how opaque you want to make part of the game (like, for example, secondary stats) you have to take into account that someone on the internet is going to figure them out and post a guide to them (and if you’re realistic, that 1) the guide will probably be more thorough than the one you created internally and 2) that they will find holes you never imagined). Sometimes that can be pretty humbling (like when the internet cracks a puzzle you spent weeks creating in five minutes), but it also helps you make better games.

It’s also, as a designer, a compliment: if your stats aren’t completely transparent, and people are willing to spend the time to go through the game with a fine-toothed comb and work out all the mechanics, you’ve apparently done something right, or no one would care enough to spend that much time on it.

So anyway, if it’s not your favored mode of playing, don’t read the threads about it. But no one’s “ruining the community” by analyzing the game.

(And thanks for the guide! Log in to see images!