You're playing a push your luck game. You bust and the rules say you get 1 single resource in compensation. How does this make you feel? (A) "What a nice, simple, catchup mechanism. At least I got something." (B) "I don't need your pity, game. Busting is supposed to be bad. I can take it." - ThreadSky

perryjon.bsky.social • 50 days ago

You're playing a push your luck game. You bust and the rules say you get 1 single resource in compensation. How does this make you feel?

(A) "What a nice, simple, catchup mechanism. At least I got something."

(B) "I don't need your pity, game. Busting is supposed to be bad. I can take it."

Comments

commsketchguy.bsky.social•50 days ago

I have two follow-up questions;

- Can I manipulate my chances of winning?
- Is it mandatory to win this game in order to reasonably accumulate specific resources?

Yes + No = B
Yes + Yes = B (mildly annoyed)
No + No = kinda A, kinda B
No + Yes = A

perryjon.bsky.social•50 days ago

It's meant to be an open ended gut check, but I'd say generally I'm thinking of Yes + Yes

wobbleblast.bsky.social•49 days ago

I think A generally, but only when it's presented as a natural narrative outcome, rather than a compensation.

I think Party House does a great job with its blame mechanic. In the moment, I care more about venting my frustration on one of the guests than the pity the game is giving me.

perryjon.bsky.social•47 days ago

Yeah, Party House is an interesting case... the blame mechanic is actually a bit awkward ruleswise, but I think the party narrative really helps sell it.

vysetron.pixeldie.com•50 days ago

I generally prefer B, but that's only because my experiences with games that do A often create at least a few turns where someone goes "well I only need 1 resource, so anything else I get is just upside"

perryjon.bsky.social•50 days ago

For sure, it can make for some obvious decisions regarding whether to push. Although I'm often okay with some obvious decision points in games as long they don't happen too often.

sablezobel.bsky.social•50 days ago

stuwert.bsky.social•50 days ago

Hmm, closer to B, but I think it’s because A turns the game into an economic valuation that I often don’t want to have to math out?

drawnonward.bsky.social•50 days ago

Definitely A.

etgoat.bsky.social•50 days ago

A. And it makes me more likely to push

fiverandomsongs.com•50 days ago

My answer depends a little bit, depending on whether the resource is related to what I lost. That is, if I'm rewarded basically a small version of what I lost, that feels bad. If I'm awarded something that might make future pushes bigger, sure, I'll take the consolation prize.

cagarvie.bsky.social•50 days ago

why? its core mechanism of the tea house in Istanbul , and ive never heard anyone complain

fiverandomsongs.com•50 days ago

I don't think I've really noted it particularly there, but that's also a pretty small part of the game. But broadly speaking, I think it's a little easy to compute for my tastes.

fiverandomsongs.com•50 days ago

Related: I went to look at games categorized as having push your luck mechanisms on BGG (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamemechanic/2661/push-your-luck/linkeditems/boardgamemechanic?pageid=1&sort=rank), and, come on, man. Codenames? Ticket to Ride: Europe? Sea, Salt & Paper? What are we doing here?

drawnonward.bsky.social•50 days ago

The mechanism tags can be so nitpicky. I wish they were a good resource but it's more like they somewhat narrow my search instead of actually sorting the games into helpful buckets.

fiverandomsongs.com•50 days ago

Yeah, they're a very noisy filter. Better than nothing, I suppose, but pretty frustrating.

mattjhart.bsky.social•50 days ago

I think I'm team A as long as the resource isn't too valuable

bracht.bsky.social•50 days ago

Definitely A.

bracht.bsky.social•50 days ago

However, now that I’m thinking a little further, I’m basing my answer on what my favorite push-your-luck game (World Championship Russian Roulette) does, which is it gives you a Mario Kart-style “power up” when you bust. It helps you not to bust again, but it’s not a resource/wincon in itself.

faidutti.com•50 days ago

Usually B, though it can depend on the rest of the rules.

pentadact.com•50 days ago

I'm more A, but it might be nice if the compensation was something unique, like a reroll token.

cheshiretcat.bsky.social•50 days ago

B, but only if a win would only result in a large amount of that single resource being awarded. If there are multiple things that can be won (IE the player could stand to gain resources AND a some form of utility/advantage for success) then a pity point is both mockery and aid. And that's funnier.

boomtron.bsky.social•50 days ago

Do I know which one will happen before making my push? If so, I don't think I have a visceral reaction to either bc it was part of my calculation beforehand. (Ill go for it, bc I'll at least get something vs. I better stay bc I might get nothing.)

perryjon.bsky.social•50 days ago

I'm assuming you would know, so absolutely the pity resource might encourage you to push harder, relatively speaking.

boomtron.bsky.social•50 days ago

I guess I think C - This resource made my decision of whether to push slightly more interesting than All or Nothing. A spectrum of results is good, but some cliffs are needed for excitement.

strotchy.bsky.social•50 days ago

I’m in camp B big time but I wouldn’t need to tell you that 😅

xanagear.bsky.social•50 days ago

"It's supposed to be bad, I can take it"

It all makes so much sense........

strotchy.bsky.social•49 days ago

Oh yeah, this is no secret :) I like for games to provide all kinds of experiences not just pleasure or fun, although those are good ones.

strotchy.bsky.social•49 days ago

In particular, games can uniquely let you experience complete - devastating - loss whilst it remaining relatively inconsequential. As a designer I feel some moral responsibility not to overly dilute that.

perryjon.bsky.social•50 days ago

Haha, yeah I definitely would have guessed. My inner Eirik voice has grown strong over the years.

strotchy.bsky.social•49 days ago

Heh, maybe it’ll come in handy having a little dude in the back there; always gently making the case for keeping things pure, cold and true 🫠

strotchy.bsky.social•49 days ago

Although tbh I wonder whether my wholly dogmatic style has somewhat run its course within my own work. I might try to earnestly consider fun ideas even when they seem to go against the grain.

perryjon.bsky.social•49 days ago

The inner Eirik voice is absolutely helpful.

As far as reinventing one's style a bit -- definitely feels like a good time to reflect on that with such a big project coming to an end!

patricfallon.bsky.social•50 days ago

B is my gut/reflexive response, but can’t say I’m not curious about A. Feel like the success of it would depend greatly on what I can do with said resource.

beausievers.bsky.social•50 days ago

perryjon.bsky.social•50 days ago

Interesting, although I don't know if that's exactly true (depending on how the game works of course). It does change your EV calculation for whether to push since the payout for busting has increased. But subtracting the payout for pushing doesn't quite make sense to me.

beausievers.bsky.social•50 days ago

It does depend on how the game works! The gist is just: If there's a reward for busting, opting not to bust is opting not to receive that reward

perryjon.bsky.social•50 days ago

Ah right, yeah, I get you! That seems most relevant if the reward for busting is a different class of resource you can't get from pushing. Whereas if the resources are the same -- ie busting gives you $1 and pushing gives you $X -- it doesn't quite work as well for me as a way to think about it.

beausievers.bsky.social•50 days ago

Totally. I'd be tempted to do that resource value conversion calculation every turn, unless the game had heuristics/fun stuff that was more compelling

babkadog.bsky.social•50 days ago

A, but the value of the compensation should comparatively go down as the game goes on.

branwenshoop.com•50 days ago

A is extra interesting, especially if said resource is only available through busting.

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