tedric wrote:That's rather rigid logic. Meta-game issues may be de-prioritized in favor of actual-game issues, but that's not the same as everyone pretending that those issues don't exist.
All functional if-then statements must be rigidly logical to perform correctly.
So, you say it is not, in fact, true that devs dismiss meta issues. If you are correct, then that second part of my "rigidly logical" conditional expression is evaluated false, and therefore the conclusion is not reached. The statement still stands as a reasonable expression, regardless of how its terms evaluated.
I mean, really, I wouldn't pretend to know the unified hive mind of a number of people I do not know and have never met, would you? Perhaps this might elicit an official position on the matter on which there is apparent disagreement between you and yourself, the author of the following which I paraphrased as the basis for second conditional in the expression:
... highscores, streaking -- basically any player goal except "grab runes, win game" -- are not important design concerns. They're a meta-game that the player base invented...
So you see, it's your own damn fault!
Anyway, until an official position is made public, I remain skeptical that there is any genuine demarcation between actual game and meta game issues in its development, since the "player base" could also be said to have "invented" its current incarnation and direction of development, given that the devs were themselves first players, and to my knowledge remain so.
If my skepticism is justified, then the second conditional fails, and the conclusion (breadswinging is never fixed) is not reached. I suppose an else clause should have been added: breadswinging is fixed (and scores are adjusted for fairness, and optimal play is a consideration in design issues, et al.), but then there should also be a third conditional; namely, "if the devs get around to it, or right people gripe about it."
Personally, I don't believe meta issues should have any impact on game design whatsoever, but that's an impossible ideal in practice, where there are real meat and bone humans at work.