yes, hi, mistakes were made

[quillpunk]

So yesterday, instead of actually writing, I spent a couple hours putting together a leveling system to gamify my writing (despite the fact that I a. use 4thewords and b. love 4thewords). I had great fun, because I do like organizing things, and I got to level 1 of my new game!

Then, today, I realized that the leveling system is functionally impossible to level up past like... level 15 or so. Eventually, it gets to the point where you literally need billions of points to level up. And just from the word-count to points ratio, it's seriously improbable to get more than 50 points in a day.

So, if you have some basic math skills, you might see the problem.

Insert crying emoji here.

This is STO (Slight the Odds) 3.0. So today I spent some more time to come up with beasts to battle for points like on 4TW, and then I need to come up with lots of quests, and items to boost exp, and... well, it might be *sort of* playable, then. It's still gonna be impossible to get to max level, but it should be playable for much longer, and if the gaming aspect matters more than the leveling aspect (which, I honestly don't know my own preference? huh) then it could be a working, fun game!

I'm also sketching on STO 4.0, which will be virtually identical to 3.0, except for an *actually functional leveling system*. If the leveling aspect matters more than the gaming aspect (or just equally as much), that's the one to use.

I suppose I'll find out my preference if I actually get around to playing them.

I will toss up the game(s) on DW once I'm finished (or if I quit *wince*) just because I've had a lot of fun making these already and I wanna show them off!

Comments

[dewladen]

I hadn't heard of 4thewords until this post and tried it out. It's amazing so thanks for making us aware of it! Curious about your game too, looking forward to when you finish!

[quillpunk]

i'm glad you like 4thewords! i think it's pretty fun, lol. and ver 3.0 and 4.0 (both of which was leveling) of my game is... i think they function? i haven't actually played them, i got sucked into ver 5.0 (which is all about building a town instead of leveling up!). anyway, i tossed this up for 3 & 4: https://slighttheodds.carrd.co/

also i'm not sure if it'd work since it sounds like you've already used 4TW, but i could toss you my referral code if you want?

[mistressofmuses]

That sounds pretty fun, honestly.

I haven't ever tried a gamified system for my writing (beyond getting to mark off a box on my habit tracker, or the built-in NaNo charts and badges and such.) I feel like it could be effective for me, but that it could also have the same pitfalls that my NaNo goals sometimes do... where I'm so focused on getting wordcount over anything else, that I fall into a quantity over quality hole for too long. (That has its place! But I don't want to feel like I'm "failing" the game because the story I'm working on has reached the point where it really needs some serious revision, etc.)

Though yeah, it sounds like the leveling may need some adjustment, though it's also valid to consider whether other non-leveling achievement is a more worthwhile aspect of the game. Bonuses for quests or additional goals seem like they can't make up the billions of points needed in 3.0, but might be able to do so if the leveling system gets evened out just slightly in the 4.0 incarnation.

It sounds intriguing!

[quillpunk]

Thank you! I haven't actually played either version yet; I've started on a version 5.0 instead. And yeah, I understand the "when does quantity start hurting quality" question and it's definitely something to keep in mind when playing a writing game.

[mistressofmuses]

Haha, more iterations!

It's rough, because both quantity AND quality are such important parts of writing, though often at different points in every project. It can be a struggle to get either to work with you, ha.