The Psycology of Low Scores

FrizzleFried

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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.
 
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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.

That's why I hated both Outrun and StarWars, what's with the huge point totals that really mean nothing? Then there's Galaxian and Berzerk, where scoring over 5000 on either one is huge for me.
 
These machines keep scores? :confused:

I'm joking, but kind of serious. As a kid, I just wanted to play a fun game. Although, getting your name on the machine was a cool treat. But not the driving force for me, personally...
 
These machines keep scores? :confused:

I'm joking, but kind of serious. As a kid, I just wanted to play a fun game. Although, getting your name on the machine was a cool treat. But not the driving force for me, personally...


BITD it was all about game-time. Score meant jack-shit to me. I'd ALWAYS choose "easy" on Star Wars... why? Because I could play for at least 15 minutes or so... but when you own `em... game-time means much less. High Score becomes more the focus (at least for me).
 
It's like spades and the dice game 500.

Why can't we just reduce the scores to 1/10th?

Also,

Aren't scores pretty much worthless in Magician Lord? Some enemies spawn endlessly(if I recall correctly).
 
Funny you bring this up Frizz. I just had a pissing match over on RGP the other day because I don't understand why people think big scores = fun??
I want to progress through a game and see the next "step/level". I couldn't give two shits about the high score personally. My satisfaction is had/made simply by having fun.

Oh and let me add last night I was playing Lord of the rings ..... had a really good time, MANY MANY multi balls freaking stacked and when I finally drained my last ball I felt like I just blew my load. And then I looked up at the DMD and saw that I had a meager 47 million. 46 million is HOF #4 spot lol. But I was 100% satisfied.
 
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Then there's Galaxian and Berzerk, where scoring over 5000 on either one is huge for me.
you took my berzerk comment you mind-melding sonofabitch :D . And ff you might want to try a game of scrabble and see what high score you get on that, since psychology has an 'h' in it. And don't try to tell me it's silent LOL
 
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This thread makes me wonder, what is the lowest "high score" out there.
I believe it is 280-Zzzap, which the current record is 4.51 pts, anyone know if there is anything lower?
 
The crazy scoring system and multipliers is the whole point to Giga Wing. Thus reflected in the name. We know the game isn't about the storyline. It makes less sense than the scoring.


As for pinball, the word "million" has such a nice ring to it. Nobody gets hyped over hitting the "Hundred Thousand Point Shot". It is also a good way to differentiate from the 50 point bumpers. It is also an easy way to remember about how much you scored. It is easier to remember 153 million than say. 1 million, five hundred and thirty thousand and some odd change.

But Williams did get out of hand towards the end when a short game would run into the hundreds of millions (like attack from mars). That is too much.
 
I know that you can get through ikaruga with no shots... But I'm not sure if you get a score or not...

Not a high score, but a pretty good feat.


Edit: ohh wait no, you do collect points in the game for absorbing enemy shots.
 
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Drag Racing 4.1 seconds.

Found another lower one... I'd guess there's even lower than this but I didn't want to search thru all of the variants of GT...
Golden Tee 2003 Score of 2
http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=22&pi=2&gi=8860&vi=108993

Thinking about this further, I'm not sure if games like these two would count since the objective is to get a low(er) score... whereas on 280 Zzzap the objective is still to get a higher score (even though that score is ridiculously low)
 
how about dwj90 and his world record score of like 2000 points on lunar lander. :)
 
Hell as long as you have fun playing that's probably the most important.

Sea Wolf is low scoring, but then again its timed gameplay.

Believe it or not Gorf scores low, too. You can play for 1/2 hour and not even get 100K...
 
space invaders is low scoring. not as low as others, but a game that you can get 50k in and get a world record in i'd consider to be low.

also, ice cold beer. it's hard to get a high score in that.

super breakout, too. off twin galaxies, the high scores are all around 2500.
 
I look at each game individually. If a game gives you 500 pts for everything you shoot I don't feel good if I score 100,000 pts on the other hand if a game gives 5pts a hit and I score 5000 I may be stoked. To me it's how good you played the game not how good they try and make you feel by giving larger point amounts per hit. I know that 200,000 pts is not an impressive galaga score so I'm not impressed when someone puts up that score.
 
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