Alex & Adam - Getting +1 Wit for Kills: Why it's a really poor change to Outwitters

[worldfamous]

(10-26-2012 03:45 AM)oneadamleft Wrote:  

(10-26-2012 03:18 AM)ArtNJ Wrote:  Look, its your game, and you need to try and make it profitable, so I think you are 100% entitled to go with your opinion rather than the majority.

Just to clarify: this is not a profit thing. Alex and I think it makes the game more strategically interesting, and from our analytics, it changes next to nothing balance wise. A forum poll split 50/50 with 4 votes is not a majority of our beta testers.

I'm glad you said that. We were told it was being changed to appeal to the casual gamer. I guess we incorrectly inferred that it was about the money, which would have been ok anyway. I agree that a less predictable game is a funner game and early on I saw Outwitters heading down a path that would end up with just a few proven strategies and predictable outcomes. However, the strategies just seem to evolve and grow in numbers, leading me to believe that there is enough variation and a change like the +1 wit kill is not needed. All I ask is, please, be sure the change is for the better before you make it. Oh, and, give me some Bramble already!

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(10-26-2012 04:09 AM)Ravernoth Wrote:  

(10-26-2012 03:45 AM)oneadamleft Wrote:  

(10-26-2012 03:18 AM)ArtNJ Wrote:  Look, its your game, and you need to try and make it profitable, so I think you are 100% entitled to go with your opinion rather than the majority.

Just to clarify: this is not a profit thing. Alex and I think it makes the game more strategically interesting, and from our analytics, it changes next to nothing balance wise. A forum poll split 50/50 with 4 votes is not a majority of our beta testers.

Adam and Alex, many thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I had the impression that a big motivation behind this change was to increase the profit, so apologies for that.

Re: making the gameplay more unpredictable, I can see where you are coming from.

The thing is, one of the great things about Outwitters is being a strategy game where there are no random elements and a win comes down purely to your tactics.

That's the reason a win is so satisfying and a loss is always a learning opportunity.

By adding this unpredictable factor, it changes that - and that will result in you willing or losing, but not knowing exactly why or whether it was more down to chance of how the kill wits played out than skill and strategy.

I feel that is not a worthwhile tradeoff, as the current gameplay already allow for skill and fun in abundance.

Less predictable doesn't mean random. It will just be more challenging to run the numbers in your head.