Slashdot Mirror
Behind the Moralgorithm
LA Weekly has up an editorial about quantifying the intangible in video games. He discusses NBA Live's attmempt to incorporate the ineffable something that makes winning teams win. From the article: "...I'd occasionally seen the moralgorithm needle hit the red; that every so often the game goes supernatural. Like one matchup, where I was playing the Sonics against the Heat on Xbox Live, and I could tell something really clicked for me when Jerome James, my oafish center, hit two three-pointers. Then Vladimir Radmanovic, whose little polygonal computer face seemed to look as surprised as I was, stole the ball from 10 feet away and passed to Antonio Daniels on a fast break that drew so much moralgorithmic momentum, I swear Ray Allen levitated up court for the most improbable alley-oop of all time."
From TFA:
Setting aside for a moment the sheer loser-ness of this statement....right up there with 'my controller isn't working' and 'I wasn't ready', it seems that Josh is attempting to coin a new term for the gaming lexicon. It's a pretty heavy-handed attempt...the word 'moralgorithm' shows up seven times in the article (including the title).
Please, do your part for the gaming community and never use this 'word'...let's try to give this thing a clean, quick death.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
I would've thought the swings of a teams morale were the kind of things preferably left without simulation. For one, I am entirely uninterested in the happiness of my players and would rather like my wins to be based more upon my skills and/or my morale at the time. Such things are best left to the Sims or Nintendogs.
...'
p.s. Moral-gorithm? Initial reaction included `... * -3.5[kittens_flipped_off] *
Since at least NHL 2001, there's been a morale meter, and when you get it full (by scoring more goals), it seems everyone's stats go up by about 50%. If your bar goes below 25% full (usually hovering between 40 and 60%, peaking at 100% maybe five times in an average game), when the opposing team scores a bunch of goals and body checks, your team loses about 25% of their regular stats.
This is nothing new.
moox. for a new generation.
I can't be the only one who has absolutley no clue what the quote from the article means.
"When all else fails, there's always delusion." -Conan O'Brien
... I think my IQ dropped five points. And I didn't have that much to spare in the first place...
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
How the little black box knew the Spurs would (probably) win the NBA Finals
Yeah, sure, the XBox is little. So are blue whales, Hummer H2's and Boeing 747's.
Blow past a car in a racing game, watch as it magically manages to stay on your tail and pass you back, despite the fact that it's a Ford Focus and you're practically driving an F1 car.
Score some points in a sports game, watch the computer complete every pass, sink every bucket, or score every goal, while your players seem to be inable to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Start pounding on the computer in an RTS, watch as it manages to produce enough units to flood the map, or research tech advantages in the blink of an eye to give it an edge.
While catch-up AI can make the game seem a lot more challenging because it keeps the computer opponent right there with you, it would be a lot nicer to see more programming to simulate things more realistically.
"He's on fire!"
You don't know joy until you're playing as Dikembe Mutumbo and raining 3's on the opponent.
I can't seem to get the fish to figure out what language this story is in.
symetrix. We are building a religion, a limited edition.
This goes back even to the old, old versions of NBA Jam that I used to play on emulator. It really didn't matter how skillful you were, because the computer team ended up matching your skill level. If you started dunking and hitting 3s on every possession, then the computer players would start doing it too and your shots would start missing. So basically every single-player game you played had a close score. I can't really say I like this method in a general sense, although I suppose it does cater toward the kids' sports crowd who might not be very good at playing those games.
Me (on being born): Hey! My stats suck!
GM: Sorry... that's the way I rolled them.
Me: What are the odds of my highest stat being an 8.
GM: Sorry... that's the way I rolled them.
Me: 3d6... and look at all those 6's and 7's...
GM: 3d SIX? Thought I was supposed to roll 3d FOUR.
Me: Whew... ok... reroll.
GM: Sorry... that's the way I rolled them.
So here I am stuck with low intelligence, wisdom, dexterity and charisma. If it weren't for Slashdot, I wouldn't fit in anywhere!
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
All the things he's talking about happening in the game aren't "features" they're bugs in EA's code, and EA's trying to pass them off as some kind of R&D.
In NBA Live 2004, I had Karl Malone prepare for a dunk from the side of the basket from 6 feet out. While in mid-air Malone rotated around the hoop and turned his body 180 degress in midair, so he was point towards the other team's basket, 94 feet away. He then proceed to go into his dunk animation, planting the ball squarely into the had of a defender.
Said defender then picked up the ball and threw it downcourt THROUGH GARY PAYTON'S TORSO to a teammate who then scored.
That's not morale, that's awful, awful code.
In NBA Live 2005, I had Lamar Odom take five steps, then throw the ball off the defender's elbow (who had been called for the foul, and was clipping through his body.) and had the ball shoot up in the air at an 85-88 degree angle to arc straight into the hoop. And the FOUL! YES!
The NBA Live series is horrid. Despite the author's best attempts to have the single most horrid line in that article, talking about "mushin" and a "moralgorithm" but that line belongs to Todd Batty who was referneced as saying:
"Over time, Batty says, the programmers have fixed most real glitches in the game."
So me getting blocked through the backboard must not be one of those glitches. Or my players bouncing off the other players in midair when I have the momentum. Or the fact that I can substitute players after the 2nd free throw. Or all the other rules of NBA basketball that EA just ignores.
You wanna do a study on the quirks that occur in a basketball game? Pick up a game that does it properly first, like NBA 2K5.
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