Trigger Happy
and stay at the back of the pack so all the computer cars slow down, and then on the last straight just put your foot down and cruise past them and win. You’ve got to be very careful with the logic of what’s happening to make sure that a better driver will always do better.
One problem that videogame designers are very aware of is the wide spectrum of gameplaying skill among their potential customers. But, with careful programming of difficulty settings and reward distribution, they can make a product that is optimally challenging and satisfying to all. Darling regrets, for instance, that TOCA 2 probably appealed only to the upper 50 percent of gameplayers in skill terms, and that a “novice” who had just bought a PlayStation and tried to play the game would have quickly become frustrated and disillusioned. Obviously, it makes good commercial sense for his team to be working on this problem with the next installment in the series: “Anybody’s achievement should be rewarded even if it’s a hopeless achievement compared to an expert.” To be sure, this is a happy form of democracy.
This peculiar motivational system of pleasurable rewards is something that sets videogames apart from any other kind of game we know. If you get better at
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