Letters To The Editor: Submit A Letter
View All Letters 
| 06.06.2006On 'On Perlin's Law'
I must disagree with what Bill Dugan said in his letter. I tried to pick a good quote, but found myself wanting to pick the entire text so as to not remove context. In essence, however, he disagrees with "Perlin's Law" because he feels that giving a cost to improbable events takes away the fun.
I think that Mr. Dugan simply missed part of the explanation of Perlin's Law, and that a bit of clarification will change his opinion. As I understood the article, the rule is not that things that would be improbable in everyday life must have a cost, but that things that are improbable within the framework of the game must have a cost.
Clearly, it is highly improbable that as I walk down the street, a portal from Hades will open up and a cyclops will emerge, forcing me to kill it with the blades chained to my wrists before it kills me. However, that is a highly probable event within the game God of War, and as such carries almost no "cost" in terms of credibility.
I definitely agree with Mr. Dugan in one aspect, though - if all video games were filled only with things that were probable (or even just possible) in everyday life, they would not be very fun.-John Tucker
|
|
|
|
|
Letters to the Editor
