This is a mini-faq stimulated by recent question and answer email exchanges between myself and several folks on the Prosperity Path.
Question: There is no a real distinction amongst the applications I evaluated. The first screen is the basically the same in all the applications.
Response: The distinctions between the games are definite — but subtle. This is done intentionally to provide an opportunity for the player to exercise a special kind of attention — an attention that is only activated when one encounters events which are the same — but, slightly different.
An additional side-effect can be “overlay sensing.” The direct sensing of non-equivalent events overlaying through similarity. As you can imagine, this is tricky for a designer to pull off. If the events are too much the same, then they become effectively equivalent. And, if the events are too different then the overlay sensing will not kick in.
Long story short, we need some of the orbs to be similar but slightly different. Later, when folks work on the training levels, the orbs are very different. But those are designed for a different type of training.
Question: The user interface is not intuitive.
Answer: I agree that in some ways that the user interface is not as intuitive as it could be. However, in the context of gaming the mouse and arrow keys have been used for movement since the first pc game hit a processor.
We have experimented with other interface designs, and… as long as we are limited to keyboard and mouse the current gaming conventions are as good as any other we have tried. Or, at least there was no system good-er (smile) enough to warrant the effort required to re-train existing users to the new system. So we stay with the “standard” mouse and arrow keys convention.
Question: Instructions for how to use / navigate the game were not found. Maybe using intuition is the quid of the application. However, that was not clear to me.
Answer: This is a more complex situation. Because of the nature of Prosperity Path Orbs, people will often play the same game many, many times. This means that any front matter added to the game (perhaps to introduce instructions about keystrokes and navigation options) will be seen many, many times. This can be tiresome for repeat users.
We could detect whether or not a particular game has been played before, then issue instructions only upon the first invocation of the game. As mentioned above, the many different games are different but also very similar. So, seeing the front matter each new game could become equally tiresome. But that is not the only consideration.
The true gains in Prosperity Path come from coaching. Coaching friends, family, buddies, and newbies. So the initial design anticipated that the vast majority of people playing their first orb would have ready access to someone familiar with the navigation etc.
We expected word of mouth to be the prime means of propagation. If that was the case, then folks could simply ask “Yo, dude (or dudette) how in the heck do I move around in this thing.” However, surprisingly enough, a fair number of folks are entering into the Prosperity Path Orbs from out of the blue — meaning not through word of mouth. They just sorta find it.
On the bright side, we have been experimenting with a solution for this. And, It seems to be working well. It involves placement of a rather unobtrusive notice “Press F1 for help” near the lower left of the initial screen (just above the hud). So far, those that need to find help are quite nicely locating the notice, and those that have seen it already a zillion times don’t seem to find it tiresome. After we finalize our work on this solution (or a better one if it should present itself) we will gradually upgrade the existing orbs.
Question: There is no way for turning off the music, without compromising the voice within the game.
Answer: While we have a natural inclination to give as much configuration control as possible to users, the music and vocals function as an integral whole. Consequentially we felt it would be a disservice to the players to provide an easy mechanism to break that integration.
Question: I played for a long time, but I did not know what was the goal of the game.
Many games have simple (and singular) goals. In Zelda the goal is to make it through the eight dungeons and rescue Princess Zelda. In Diablo 2 the goal is to kill Baal. These are simple goals. In the Prosperity Path orbs each type of orb has an equally simple goal. For remedy orbs the goal is to make one’s way through the labyrinth. In insta-fix orbs the goal is to walk about 50 feet through the cleansing radiations to the entity at the end. In oracle orbs the goal is to answer a short set of questions to the best of one’s ability. In the cleansing orbs the goal is to make one’s way through the cleansing mist/radiations. These are mechanical goals. Built into the orb. But there are many other goals.
- Burn karma,
- Train one’s attention,
- Exercise will and presence,
- Activate affirmations,
- Become maze bright,
- Develop your sensing,
- etc.
- etc.
The list of possible accomplishments is long. The bad news is: it is a little discomforting not having these laid out for one from the get-go. The good news is: you don’t need to have these goals laid out in order to accomplish them. In fact, in many cases you do better if you don’t have a mental construct of what to expect. This allows for exercise of intuition and unfolding of experience — two additional entries for the list above.
Basically it is okay to not know the goals which others have defined and allow your own experience to initiate you into the goals that are right for you at the moment. “Figure out what the heck is going on in this orb” could easily be one of the initial goals. :)
Question: I could not find a way for pausing the game without loosing the score. By the way, I have no records of the game scoring.
Answer: There is no need to pause the game. The game is safe. Nothing bad can happen to your character in the game. This means you can safely leave the character anywhere in the game without fear of monsters wandering along and doing harm. In addition as time ticks by, the character is exposed to cleansing radiations — meaning karma burn while you wait.