BlackShipsFillt
18-09-2011, 01:01 AM
Fengol tweeted a lovely little idea which went something like:
Why is bartering in games always just two inventories and a "buy" button.
"Bartering" is sometimes a skill you can become good at, but that is just a modifier... The question Fengol asked was: Where is the gameplay? ... and in something that can be quite challenging, and rewarding, in real life... why is noone making it fun or interesting.
Of course sticking in a mini-game there is no fun. That just delays the purchase and frustrates the player.
The challenging, and therefore fun part, of bartering is bluffing and gauging you're opponent's expectations and thresholds...
Of course games only involving virtual worlds with lowered risks the system can't be something that can just be brute forced... always asking lower and bluffing cannot be a winning strategy, because that is no fun either...
What I'd suggest is that in a game, like Fable for example, where people's esteem of the player and people's wellbeing are somewhat simulated, and there are no screens where you can look at two inventories... Hold on... in fact now that I think about it Fable does have haggling...
Although it wasn't fun in Fable. What I'd really like for a haggling game is a system a bit like LA Noire, which allows you to read merchant's faces, and maybe even do things like intentionally short change them and then suddenly distract them with a story so they forget to count the money... Which would work nicely in the Fable universe as most of the NPCs have about the same smarts as a golden retriever and less appeal... In fact I bet Peter Molyneux has something just like this written on a wall somewhere.
Anyway... those are my thoughts... It was a bit too long to tweet so if you do read it Fengol, that's my response.
I wonder what Fengol was thinnking...
Why is bartering in games always just two inventories and a "buy" button.
"Bartering" is sometimes a skill you can become good at, but that is just a modifier... The question Fengol asked was: Where is the gameplay? ... and in something that can be quite challenging, and rewarding, in real life... why is noone making it fun or interesting.
Of course sticking in a mini-game there is no fun. That just delays the purchase and frustrates the player.
The challenging, and therefore fun part, of bartering is bluffing and gauging you're opponent's expectations and thresholds...
Of course games only involving virtual worlds with lowered risks the system can't be something that can just be brute forced... always asking lower and bluffing cannot be a winning strategy, because that is no fun either...
What I'd suggest is that in a game, like Fable for example, where people's esteem of the player and people's wellbeing are somewhat simulated, and there are no screens where you can look at two inventories... Hold on... in fact now that I think about it Fable does have haggling...
Although it wasn't fun in Fable. What I'd really like for a haggling game is a system a bit like LA Noire, which allows you to read merchant's faces, and maybe even do things like intentionally short change them and then suddenly distract them with a story so they forget to count the money... Which would work nicely in the Fable universe as most of the NPCs have about the same smarts as a golden retriever and less appeal... In fact I bet Peter Molyneux has something just like this written on a wall somewhere.
Anyway... those are my thoughts... It was a bit too long to tweet so if you do read it Fengol, that's my response.
I wonder what Fengol was thinnking...