Sid Meier's Psychology of Game Design

Why HN readers recommended it

HN people cite it when discussing perceived randomness, luck and player experience in games, and say more designers should heed it.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

GDC Festival of Gaming

Topic

game design psychology

Format

talk

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

4

HN mentions in dataset

4

Recommendation years in dataset

2016–2019

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• Many games don't have win states or shouldn't have win states. More people need to listen to what Sid Meier has said on this. That HN article was written by someone who did not know what they were talking about. [VIDEO]

• Agreed; the point of the game is to make you feel like a God. Sid Meier gave a talk at the GDC: [VIDEO] In it he explained how Civilization tested random negative events that could shape your world. He mentioned how this had a negative …

• > The anecdote about Sid Meier hard-coding a guaranteed "win on the third attempt" for a battle with a 1/3 victory probability was very interesting. You might enjoy these videos as well: [LINK] [VIDEO]