look at warfare itself

12/30/2008 17:58

Last time we dived into Clausewitz and began looking at how his theories of warfare can be applied to gaming. We investigated the impact of moral forces on combat and I got a bit ahead of myself. When I think of Clausewitz, morale factors are the first thing that jumps to my mind. However, before we go too far into his theories, we need to step back a pace and look at warfare itself.

In the wake of the Napoleonic Era there were essentially two camps in warfare theory. The first, championed by Antoine-Henri de Jomini, argued that warfare was fundamentally a science. Jomini, as a child of the Age of Reason, took a highly logical perspective on warfare that could sometimes be seen as almost mathematical. The second approach to war was taken by Clausewitz and his argument that warfare was in many ways unquantifiable and lay more in the realm of an art. He says, "...the absolute, the mathematical as it is called, nowhere finds any sure basis in the calculations in the Art of War; and that from the outset there is a play of possibilities, probabilities, good and bad luck, which spreads about with all the coarse and fine threads of its web, and makes War of all branches of human activity the most like a gambling game." (Book I, Chapter I, page 117).

So lets move on to games. Being bound by the mathematical framework of computers, games begin inherently on the science side of the debate. The means by which the art is generally introduced is through mechanisms of probability to create "chance." We see it whenever we attempt to strike at an enemy with the chance to hit or whenever we land a blow and the amount of damage is determined. There are chances to dodge, parry, block, or resist spells. But when it comes down to it, this is still largely a science. The chance to hit is almost always 50% for equal levels while damage variance is translated conveniently into damage per second.

Frankly, these concepts are what I'd expect to see and I have no problem with them. But I'm surprised that that is all I see. There is as much detail in 30 year old pen and paper games... roll a 15 to hit (25% chance), you do 2D6 damage. Sound familiar? Why we can't move further than that? Let's look at some practical examples:

The first one that jumped to mind happened when I was playing WoW the other day. I was dabbling with a low-level night elf rogue in Darkshore and was having fun swimming the coast and hunting Darkshore Threshers. But I quickly found myself falling into a pattern. Most of the Threshers were either L12 or L14. I got into a rhythm of building four Sinister Strikes followed by an Eviscerate on the 12s while using five Sinister Strikes and an Eviscerate on the 14s. In all cases this was sufficient to kill, or nearly kill every Threshers. Then it hit me, this is pretty mathematical. What happened to the art of the hunt?

Here's another example from LOTRO. A while back I was invited by some friends to join them on a trip to Goblin Town (a L50 zone, for those who aren't familiar with it). I was only a Level 41 guardian at the time, but they assured me I'd be okay. True enough, with enough high level companions around, I was safe. On the other hand, I couldn't land a single hit on a monster the entire night. All those sword strikes and not one hit!

Now a PK example from LOTRO. The game is rather non-PvP, but there is a corner of the world (the Ettenmoors) that you can fight other players that control of L50 minions of the Witch King. You can head there at L40, but to be successful you really need to be L50 like your opponents. As I was partaking in a bit of PvP, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. There was a L43 that had bravely (or perhaps stupidly) joined our group. In every battle, the enemy targeted her first. She was killed so often she must have been glad that LOTRO's death penalties are non-existent in the Ettenmoors.

warhammer powerleveling

https://vwowgoldo.oggix.org/2008/12/15/virtually-ignoring-the-presence-of-your-half-dozen-comrades/
https://vwowgoldo.blog-author.com/the_tactical_aides_let_you_turn_the_tide_of_war-174579.html https://vwowgoldo.blog-author.com/the_tiberian_sun_and_firestorm_storylines_are_interwoven-174578.html
https://vwowgoldo.inube.com/blog/32733/you-ll-never-be-friends/

https://vwowgoldo.inube.com/blog/32732/sins-reaches-a-different-order-of-magnitude-to-oth er-games/
https://vwowgoldo.blog.co.in/2008/12/15/this-is-the-new-peggle/