Mar 31, 2017, 1:21 AM

@Bobotron said in PC antagonism done right:

I think the person who talked about people not being able, or willing, to 'lose' when faced with an opposition or antagonist is one of the core problems. Especially when it's not a factionalized game. People want to have only the good things, not the bad things.

My suspicion is that, while that may be true, we might be able to at least sweeten the pot a little bit more.

In most games losing is just that - you gain nothing in return; maybe doors are shut in your face because of it (you didn't become Primogen so no getting into those top-end meetings), maybe you lose your character.

Obviously we won't fix human condition here, but perhaps there are steps we can take to ensure people don't feel that bad. Take death out of the equation by an adjustable level of consent, offer rewards for having long-term enemies, removing the veil of paranoia ("are they out to get me?" is a common one, even if the sad truth is most of the time no one gives a shit about us πŸ™‚ ), etc.

But what's important here is figuring out how to do these things. Come on guys, we mostly agree here; we know what we want to achieve. How, though? Let's put more thought into methods, systems, actionable systems staff can put into play to tilt the scales back into sanityville.