The golf analogy

Nonce Equitaur 2

In the game of golf, players pay huge amounts of money for their clubs, green fees, clothing, perks, refreshments, trainers, caddies, and so on.

Much of the sport involves paying money for small improvements. People spend a lot of money on golf.

However, money is never a factor of the actual scoring of the game. If the Golfers Association implemented a new rule that for $100,000 a player could take 10 points of their score, then many players who could afford to pay that amount would abandon the game under those rules. They'd spend $1,000,000 for equipment that might help them that much, but the moment money intruded too far into the actual gameplay, it's no longer a sport. It's money stacking.

The money for boosts is the game breaker for MPQ. It changes the nature of the game. When the Thor / Wolverine nerfs came though, there was just one thread, and most people were okay with that. Most were okay with the opponents scaling up in difficulty. Then the double-whammy -- opponents stayed at level 230 forever, and you've got to pay for the boosts you've used to beat them. Then a triple-whammy -- cheaters are invading the game.

Back to the golf course analogy --
"You'll need to play this hole with my Aunt Feebus, and watch out for the land mines we've added."
"There's a swarm of killer bees on the course, but just ignore them. There's a $100 fee each time you notice a bee. We'll get rid of the bees eventually, once we've stopped putting land mines on the course."
"Did you just try to change clubs? It's $500 now to swap clubs."
"Someone told us that rabid wolves would take care of the killer bees, so watch out for them. $200 fee each time you notice a wolf, by the way."
"Apologies for the injuries from the land mine ... there's a $50,000 fee for setting it off, and we can put your leg on ice for just $20,000 more. Oh, and $10,000 to get your leg away from the wolf that grabbed it."
"Ya got onto the green with one stroke! Congrats! But we'll need to bury the ball in the sandtrap unless you pay Gweedo $500."

It's easy to come up with ways to make more money with Golf! But all of these make the game miserable. At the start, it's a great golf course. The bee problem is starting to cut into revenues, though. The best solution is to listen to better players and fix the bee problem. Make the golf course better.

Eddiemon

The golf analogy in a nutshell.

I have to pay green fees every time I want to play a round of golf? That makes it pay to win! Rage moar.

You moved the bunker on the fifth hole to make it more challenging. I now can't complete it in 3 shots anymore. Rage moar.

I can't complete the 7th in four shots. You need to move the tee closer to the green so that I can complete it in four shots. I need to be able to win every hole or my life is meaningless.

People were able to beat the dogleg on the ninth by hitting into the field next door and out again. You now deliberately marked it out of bounds with a 2 stroke penalty. Rage moar.

You can buy better equipment. Having a modern non rusty set of clubs and being able to switch your ball out when it gets deformed give you an edge in that sport too. Having a golf buggy or a caddy means you are less tired from carrying your clubs and improves your game. New players may start with just odd numbered clubs because they don't want to spend the money. All Pay 2 Win.

And the rules of golf are evolving. IN the mid 2000s when drivers had gotten so advanced that they acted as a spring and not just a natural energy transfer the rules were rewritten to ban drivers with an energy transfer coefficient over a certain percent. There's your Rag nerf right there.

Similarly new ball technologies regularly get tested and ruled for/against. Anything that give a gamebreaking advantage gets banned.

And you cannot buy 10 more even points in this game, just like you cannot buy a 10 stroke reduction in golf. You can however buy golf lessons or spend time and money on a driving range to improve your game. Kind of like boosts. Pay 2 win, nobody should be allowed lessons or practice!

So yes, this game is very similar to golf. A lot of people also get incandescent with rage on a golf course too, so there is that similarity also.

Unknown

Eddiemon wrote:

The golf analogy in a nutshell.

I have to pay green fees every time I want to play a round of golf? That makes it pay to win! Rage moar.

You moved the bunker on the fifth hole to make it more challenging. I now can't complete it in 3 shots anymore. Rage moar.

I can't complete the 7th in four shots. You need to move the tee closer to the green so that I can complete it in four shots. I need to be able to win every hole or my life is meaningless.

People were able to beat the dogleg on the ninth by hitting into the field next door and out again. You now deliberately marked it out of bounds with a 2 stroke penalty. Rage moar.

You can buy better equipment. Having a modern non rusty set of clubs and being able to switch your ball out when it gets deformed give you an edge in that sport too. Having a golf buggy or a caddy means you are less tired from carrying your clubs and improves your game. New players may start with just odd numbered clubs because they don't want to spend the money. All Pay 2 Win.

And the rules of golf are evolving. IN the mid 2000s when drivers had gotten so advanced that they acted as a spring and not just a natural energy transfer the rules were rewritten to ban drivers with an energy transfer coefficient over a certain percent. There's your Rag nerf right there.

Similarly new ball technologies regularly get tested and ruled for/against. Anything that give a gamebreaking advantage gets banned.

And you cannot buy 10 more even points in this game, just like you cannot buy a 10 stroke reduction in golf. You can however buy golf lessons or spend time and money on a driving range to improve your game. Kind of like boosts. Pay 2 win, nobody should be allowed lessons or practice!

So yes, this game is very similar to golf. A lot of people also get incandescent with rage on a golf course too, so there is that similarity also.

Pay me $10 per hole to shield or else I'm gonna throw a golfball at you every time you swing! (You lose 35 points if I hit you)

Unknown

How about they just remove the rainbow boost? I figure that'd please people. I'm not comfortable with realizing just how many players apparently boosted almost every other match or so, I save my boosts for things like that Dr. Doom LR I just got top 2 in (and I only boosted the last 2 matches, since I was trying to squeeze 2 in within 5 minutes - and I did!). It's certainly not worth it, and with it, several persons were just blasting ISO in order to gain a rather substantial advantage (roughly the equivalent of 6 turns' worth of matches, whereas other boosts are 2 - could be argued as less with clever tile positioning, but you get the point).

Dayv

Kamahl-FoK wrote:

How about they just remove the rainbow boost? I figure that'd please people.

I wouldn't mind if they made it drop-only. You could stockpile it over time for an occasional big push, but you couldn't pay for it or expect a predictable supply.

Spencer75

The second analogy was WAY better...

Dayv

Spencer75 wrote:

The second analogy was WAY better...

I think reality lies between the two...