Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Economy Game

I'm watching the news today. The US government is trying to fix the economy by adding and changing rules. Rules? The economy is a system that runs on incentives and choice. In other words, the economy is a resource management game with a very complex web of rules that very few people understand. I don't follow the news very often, and I don't claim to be an expert on anything relating to politics and economics, but I am familiar with one thing. Whenever games I design get too complicated, or whenever the system doesn't work, the better option is usually to reduce the number of rules not add more. New rules sound like great and exciting ideas. This will make the game really fun! But there's a nasty hitch to some rules, and you can't know how the new rules will impact the game until you test them out.