The Psychology of Low Scores
WTF is it with "low scores" and the lack of a feeling of satisfaction? What I mean is that I recently fired up Magician Lord on the Neo-Geo. After playing my first game I felt I did "OK" for a first game only to look at my score and realize I barely hit 9,000 points... total. What? So I play again and again and again and manage to bust 10,000 points. 10 points for killing a monster? Huh? WTF...
Then I think about it and I wonder... "Why do I care that my point score is so low?" Well? Why? It shouldn't matter... but it does. Why do I feel more satisfaction playing a game that scores much higher (lets say, Galaga) vs Magician Lord with its low scores? Even if my game play is LONGER on Magician Lord, I somehow feel less satisfied with the total score than a shorter game on Galaga! Why?!?
Then there are those games that take the extreme opposite approach... GigaWing I am looking RIGHT AT YOU! Is it really necessary to score in the TRILLIONS (X,000,000,000,000) of points? It sure makes it harder to keep track of high scores on a whiteboard.
WTF is it with "low scores" and the lack of a feeling of satisfaction? What I mean is that I recently fired up Magician Lord on the Neo-Geo. After playing my first game I felt I did "OK" for a first game only to look at my score and realize I barely hit 9,000 points... total. What? So I play again and again and again and manage to bust 10,000 points. 10 points for killing a monster? Huh? WTF...
Then I think about it and I wonder... "Why do I care that my point score is so low?" Well? Why? It shouldn't matter... but it does. Why do I feel more satisfaction playing a game that scores much higher (lets say, Galaga) vs Magician Lord with its low scores? Even if my game play is LONGER on Magician Lord, I somehow feel less satisfied with the total score than a shorter game on Galaga! Why?!?
Then there are those games that take the extreme opposite approach... GigaWing I am looking RIGHT AT YOU! Is it really necessary to score in the TRILLIONS (X,000,000,000,000) of points? It sure makes it harder to keep track of high scores on a whiteboard.
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