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Old 07-14-2008, 05:27 PM   #9
Ajaxab
College Benchwarmer
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Far from home
How are we defining control here? Control of what exactly? It would seem that would be important to evaluating whether people do, in fact, want more control as Jim states above.

Imho, control involves making user choices have outcomes that are discernible. If users can discern that their choices are clearly making a difference, then control will follow. If they can't, users will never feel in control. This seems to be the point greg is making above. Give users outcomes they can identify as coming from their choices and they will feel in control. Or at least, give them the impression that their choices have yielded plausible outcomes. FOF does many things well, but in some areas, this plausibility is lacking.

But I guess before we talk about control, we need to ask about what outcomes we want users to be able to discern. I get a sense that there are some outcomes in FOF that the game doesn't want users to be able to discern. Why are users unable to know how some things work without waiting a year for a word from the developer? Should these even be included in the game if they are not documented? Perhaps from the perspective of realism. But from the gameplay perspective, they potentially become incredibly frustrating (the lack of available defensive gameplans would be an example here).

Another question we might ask would be, what constitutes evidence of control? If statistics do not provide enough evidence, what else would let users know their choices have made a difference? In the gold standard text sim that is FM, we not only have the evidence of numbers, but a decent amount of textual evidence. For example, I know that I have motivated a player when the in-game text tells me 'Player A is proving his manager wrong!' or I have positively influenced another manager when the profile of that manager features text saying, 'Feels the two of you could become friends.' FOF might take this type of evidence and add it to the in-game commentary. Why not include something like 'QB A completes a short pass to FL B. LCB C missed his zone assignment'? Or have longer strings of narrative in the text that detail not only what happens at the point of attack, but also what happens when the RB meets the linebackers and secondary. The text might include some lines like 'Coordinator D made the perfect call on that play.' If done well, these descriptions could go a long way to making users feel as though their choices are making a difference by allowing them to discern the outcomes of these choices.

Just my $0.02.
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