v21’s avatarv21’s Twitter Archive—№ 72,409

    1. I guess it makes sense that I am obsessed with Goodhart's Law. It's a paradox at the heart of game design. My bio says "creating elaborate excuses for inherently enjoyable experiences", and Goodhart's Law is about how those excuses will eventually obliterate those experiences.
  1. …in reply to @v21
    an example: "The Ramp" takes away all external motivation, and asks if riding an imaginary skateboard is still fun (it is). Goodhart's Law: avoided! V.S. a game which rewards tricks which are inevitably not quite the most fun to pull off. vice.com/en/article/pkbwx8/the-ramp-is-a-shockingly-small-skateboarding-game
    1. …in reply to @v21
      a classic source of game design trouble is making an optimal strat that is less fun, less rich, than a less-optimal one. that's Goodhart's Law, baby! and it gets worse the more players are rewarded for it. so: an eternal roil of balance patches responding to a shifting meta.
      1. …in reply to @v21
        speed-running is about focusing in at the optimal at the expense of everything else, a great example of focusing on the boring until it becomes interesting again. but speed running communities then recreate these limits, defining precisely what counts as an allowable glitch.