开车上班 #27 - 烂牌

好的。

Okay.

我现在正把车开进我家车道。

I'm pulling on my driveway.

大家都知道这意味着什么。

We all know what that means.

又到了开车去上班的时间了。

It's time for another drive to work.

好的。

Okay.

在开始今天的内容之前，先跟大家说一下，我查了路况，去上班的路上发生了一起事故。

Before we start today, let you know that I trucked the traffic conditions, and there is an accident on my way to work.

地图上一片红。

There's a there's a bunch of red.

所以今天这期播客可能会长一点。

So we might have a longer podcast today.

所以呢，我挑了一个我一直想聊的话题，而且我有很多话想说。

As such, I picked a topic that I've been wanting to talk about that I have a lot to say on.

这个话题就是“烂牌”。

The topic is bad cards.

很久以前，我开始写我的专栏《创造魔法》的时候，我记得我写的第六篇专栏文章，标题是《当牌变烂》。

So long ago when I started my writing my column, Making Magic, I think the sixth column I ever wrote was a column called When Cards Go Bad.

当时的情况是，我们刚推出的时候，开始了一个叫“问巫师”的栏目，现在我们已经不做了。

And what happened was when the when we first premiered, we started doing a thing called ask wizards, which we don't do anymore.

嗯，偶尔还会做，但那时候是每天更新的。

Well, we we do it occasionally, but it was a daily feature back then.

这个栏目的想法是，人们提问，然后我们找一个我们认为最合适的人来回答。

And the idea was people ask something, and then we get a wizard's person we think is the most the best person to answer to answer it.

有一天，有人问了一个问题，大概是关于“你们为什么要做烂牌”之类的。

So one day, there's a question about, like, I don't about why you make bad cards.

然后我说，烂牌必须存在，诸如此类的话。

And I I I said, look, bad cards have to exist and whatever.

我简短地说了几句，我说这是个比较复杂的问题，但你知道，烂牌是必须存在的。

I I gave a short I said I said this is a more complex issue, but, you know, bad cards have to exist.

后来有个人写信给我，叫内森，我忘了他姓什么，他说，你说烂牌必须存在是什么意思？

Anyway, a guy wrote to me, Nathan, I forget his last name, and said, what do you mean bad cards have to exist?

它们根本没必要存在。

They don't have to exist.

我把那封信登了出来，然后写了一封回信，解释为什么烂牌确实必须存在，后来就成了那篇叫《当牌变烂》的文章。

And I printed the letter, and in response, I wrote a letter about why bad cards do have to exist, which became the article called When Cards Go Bad.

我还写了……其实不久前我又重新审视了一下这个话题，稍微做了点更新，再聊了聊。

I also wrote I revisited it not too long ago to sort of do a little bit of update and talk about it.

但如果你关心游戏设计，这真的是个非常重要的话题。

But this is a a really important if you care about game design, this is a very important topic.

所以我觉得这值得在开车上班的路上聊一聊。

And so I felt it was worthy of a drive to work.

所以，我不会完全按照那篇文章的顺序来讲，因为我想从一个稍微不同的角度来切入。

So the the the big I'm I'm not gonna cover exactly in the order that the the article covered it because I wanted to sort of approach it from a a slightly different vantage point.

所以问题是，打个比方说，为什么必须有烂牌？

So the question is, why metaphorically almost, why why must there be bad cards?

我想谈的一点是，我觉得人们有时候不明白事物的价值以及价值从何而来，他们总是假设某些东西天生就比其他东西好。

And so one of the things that I like to talk about is that I think people sometimes don't understand that there is value the value of things and where they come from, that there's assumptions that certain things are always better than other things.

比如说，社会上普遍认为强比弱好。

For example, the idea that strong is better than weak built into our society.

强就是好。

Strong is good.

弱就是差。

Weak is bad.

但你想一想。

But think about this.

保险丝是什么？

What what is a fuse?

你知道，保险丝就是你配电箱里比周围东西都弱的一个部件。

You know, a fuse is something in your box or your your electrical box that is weaker than the things around it.

那是设计成在电力激增时烧断的。

That's designed to blow if there's a power surge.

那为什么呢？

And why is that?

因为如果不这样，会造成很大的损害。

Because if not, it would cause a lot of damage.

但通过故意设置一个弱点，它保护了整个系统。

But by having one sort of weak spot that's purposely put in, it protects the larger system.

你知道，它被设计成弱的，但正是这种弱在发挥作用。

You know, it's it is something that is made to be weak but is doing a service by being weak.

对吧？

You know?

那种认为强就是好、弱就是坏的思维，其实没有理解更大的图景。

And that the whole mindset that, like, strength is good and weak is bad doesn't quite understand the bigger picture.

现在我要讲一个我经常提到的话题，让我在这里解释一下，那就是游戏设计的目标并不是为了让玩家轻松。

Now here's something I talk about a lot, but let me let me sort of explain it here, which is the goal of game design is not to make things easy for the people playing.

这不是他们来玩游戏的目的。

That's not why they're here playing a game.

你知道，我在文章里也提过，设计一个东西的时候，不知怎么的，总是会想到台灯。

You know, I've talked about this in my article about how, you know, when you design an object, somehow somehow it's always a lamp.

可能这是我的习惯吧。

I think maybe it's my go to.

总之，设计台灯的时候，你要让人很容易明白怎么用。

Anyway, when you design a lamp, you wanna make it easy to understand how to use the lamp.

比如开关应该很明显。

Like the on switch should be obvious.

你应该知道开关在哪里。

It should you know, you should know where it is.

能够够得着。

You'll able to get to it.

按起来也应该很轻松。

When you it should be easy to push.

灯应该亮起来，对吧。

The light should go on, you know.

目标就是让它用起来越简单越好。

The goal is to make it as easy to use as possible.

但游戏设计可不是这样的。

That is not how game design works.

完全不是，游戏设计根本不是这么回事。

Not in remotely how game design works.

游戏设计是你要给玩家设置障碍。

Game design is you are trying to throw obstacles in the way of your audience.

你知道吗。

You know.

玩家并不想要太简单。

The audience doesn't want it easy.

对吧？

You know?

这里有个游戏。

Here's a game.

掷个骰子。

Roll a die.

如果你掷出1到6，你就赢了。

If you roll one through six, you win.

好。

Okay.

这游戏不太刺激。

Not not a very exciting game.

就算你掷出2到6，你也赢。

You even roll two through six, you win.

还是不够刺激。

Still not an exciting game.

你想要的是那种，比如你说，好，你得掷出6，就是六面骰子上的6，但还有一些条件限制。

What you want is something where you say, okay, you gotta roll, you know, a six on a six out of die, but and there's some parameters to it.

你知道，你的目标就是做成这件事，但会有一些限制条件。

You know, that, you know, your goal is to do this thing, but there's parameters.

有趣的是，也许是因为我来自影视行业，我是个讲故事的人，这是我的背景。

And the funny thing is, maybe it's because I come from the world of, you know, TV and film that I'm a storyteller, and that's my background.

所以我总是把游戏设计和讲故事做比较。

And so I always compare game design to storytelling.

讲故事其实很相似，就是如果你没有目标，故事就没意思。故事里总有一个主角，主角想要得到某样东西。

And storytelling is very similar, which is it's not fun if you're so you always have a protagonist in a story, and your protagonist wants something.

这是关键。

That that's key.

对吧？

Right?

这对任何故事来说都是关键。

It's it's key to any story.

主角必须有所追求。

Your protagonist has to want something.

如果他们没什么想要的，故事就很难展开，但他们确实有想要的东西。

If they don't want something, it's kinda hard to have a story, but they want something.

然后你就往他们路上扔障碍。

And then you throw obstacles in their way.

我有个老师把它解释成故事的三个节拍：人爬上树，往人身上扔石头，人从树上下来。

I had a teacher who explained it as the three beats of a story is man grows up a tree, throw rocks at the man, man gets out of the tree.

关键就是，你得让主角很难得到他想要的东西。

And it's kind of the thing is you have to make it hard for your protagonist to get the thing they want.

你懂吧？

You know?

比如说，多萝西被龙卷风卷走，落到了奥兹国。

For example, you know, Dorothy gets caught up in a tornado and lands in the Wizard of Oz.

那多萝西想要什么呢？

Well, what does Dorothy want?

她想回家。

She wants to go home.

那么，格琳达有没有回去说，好的。

Well, does Glenda go back and go, okay.

我送你回家。

I'll send you home.

没有。

No.

或者格琳达有没有说，嘿。

Or does Glenda even say, hey.

你穿着红宝石鞋。

You're wearing ruby slippers.

如果你把鞋跟碰三下，就能回家。

If you click those together, can go home.

没有。

No.

对吧？

Okay?

重点是，路上会遇到一些障碍。

The point is there's some obstacles underway.

首先，她得去见奥兹国的巫师，大家都知道，他其实没法把她送回家，但关键是她得被派去冒险、去做各种事情，最后她得自己发现，哦，原来她一直都有这个能力，但你不可能一开始就知道这一点。

For starters, she's in the form she has to see the Wizard of Oz who as we all know, he can't get her home but that's the point is, you know, she has to be sent on journeys and do things and like in the end she has to discover, oh, she had this within her but that you you can't find that out right away.

游戏也是一样的道理。

Games is the same way.

游戏，当你开始玩一个游戏时，你希望游戏能给你带来挑战。

Games, when you start playing a game, you want to have the game challenge you.

实际上，如果你玩一个游戏——我我我学到过这个——如果第一次玩就太简单，你会觉得，这没什么意思。

In fact, if you play a game, I I I've learned this, and it's too easy the first time, you go, that's not too exciting.

你知道，你想要的是一款能挑战你的游戏。

You know, what you want is a game that challenges you.

而且说实话，魔法这个游戏的一个特点，也是它的一个优点——好吧，不是优点，它本身就很棒——但它一个强项就是它很有挑战性。

And and to be fair, one of the things about magic that is one of the the saving graces of the game well, not saving graces, it's an awesome game, but one of the strong things about the game is it is a challenging game.

不管你在游戏里多厉害，总有些东西会让你觉得，等等，还有更多要学的。

That no matter how good you are at the game, there's something about the game that says, wait, there's more for you to learn.

这是游戏很棒的一点。

And that's that's an awesome part of the game.

我现在已经上了高速，到目前为止还没看到堵车。

I've now gone on the freeway and thus far, I do not see traffic.

所以我也说不准。

So I don't know.

你们看，有意思的地方就在这儿。

See, you guys there there's the funny thing.

我当然希望别堵车。

I'm rooting for no traffic.

我还有个会要开呢。

I got a meeting to go to.

你们可能巴不得堵车呢。

You guys are like, traffic jam sounds good.

所以堵车的情况我回头告诉你们。

So I'll let you know how the traffic jam.

不过现在，我本以为会看到什么，结果没有。

Right now though, I I expected to see something I don't.

所以可能已经解决了。

So might have gotten cleared up.

总之，你想挑战你的观众。

Anyway, so you want to challenge your audience.

你想给他们设置障碍。

You want to throw things in their way.

好的。

Okay.

那么，为什么坏牌会这样呢？

So why why do bad cards do that?

首先，魔术的一大要点就是你要让人们面临一些挑战。

Well, for starters, the one of the big things about magic is that you want to make people have some challenge.

明白吗？

Okay?

但问题就在这里。

But here's here's the problem.

第一，你失去了不同技能水平的玩家。

Number one, you've lost the different people with different skill sets.

我想让游戏对每个人都有挑战性，不只是顶尖玩家，也不只是新手，而是所有人。

I wanna make the game challenging for everyone, not just for the top end player, not just for the bottom end player, for everyone.

那我该怎么做呢？

Well, how do I do that?

方法之一就是设置一个渐进的难度梯度。

Well, one of the ways to do that is you have a sloping degree of skill.

也就是说，你要确保每个玩家在进入游戏时，都能在自己的水平上遇到相应的挑战。

What that means is you wanna make sure that every person who enters the game at their level, there is a a difficulty.

你明白我的意思吗？

You know what saying?

就是要有能让他们觉得有挑战的东西。

That there is something to challenge them.

在每个水平上，你都想让他们受到挑战。

At every level, you want them to be challenged.

你想要烂牌的原因是，新手玩家其实不太懂。

And the reason that you want bad cards is your beginning player isn't gonna know much better.

然后你要确保有，哦，好的。

And then you wanna make sure that you have oh, okay.

我现在开始遇到堵车了。

I'm now hitting traffic.

你们的欢呼声都出来了。

Your cheers went out.

耶，堵车。

Yay, traffic.

好的。

Okay.

我现在开始停车了，所以我们真的遇到事故了。

I'm starting to stop now, so we're actually hitting this accident.

好的。

Okay.

所以你要确保有层层递进的挑战，让每个玩家都能找到适合自己的挑战。

So you wanna make sure that there's layers that go along that that every player has a challenge for them.

设计中的一个要点就是，我们要确保有些卡牌能挑战到每个人。

And so one of the things in design is we wanna make sure that there's cards that challenge everybody.

同样重要的是，不仅要挑战玩家，还要让他们有获胜的机会。

Also, equally important, not only do you have to challenge people, but you also have to give them victories.

如果你把玩家卡得太死，从来不让他们解决任何问题，他们就会放弃。

That if if you if you stymie people too much, if you never let them solve anything, they they'll give up.

比如，有意思的是，马克·戈特利布，前规则经理，现在是万智牌的设计经理。

Like, of the things that's interesting, Mark Gottlieb, former rules manager, now the magic designer design manager.

抱歉。

Sorry.

他，作为爱好，通常也是职业上，会设计谜题。

He, as a hobby, and usually professionally, designs puzzles.

所以我和他聊了很多。

And so he and I have had a lot of talk.

我和我妻子喜欢办派对，我通常会为派对设计一些谜题。

I I I my wife and I like to throw parties, and I I tend to make puzzles for the party.

所以我也算是涉足了一下谜题设计，但远不如马克那么深入。

So I I dip my toe in puzzle making, not quite as much as Mark has.

他说过，谜题的目标不是要难倒你的观众。

And one of the things he said is that the goal of a puzzle is not to outwit your audience.

而是要做出既有挑战性又能解出来的东西。

It's to make something that is challenging but solvable.

游戏也是一样，你需要有挑战性，但如果太难了，真的，你坐下来玩，然后发现，好吧，让我先解释一下玩这个游戏需要记住的8422条规则。

And games are the same way, that you want to have challenge, but if it's too hard, literally, if if you sit down and play and it's like, well, let me explain the 8,422 rules you need to play this.

首先，检查一下。

First, check.

太阳出来了吗？

Is the sun out?

现在是什么季节？

What season is it?

附近有牛吗？

Is there a cow within distance?

我，我不知道。

I I don't know.

比如说，如果游戏太复杂，人们就会放弃。

Like, if you get a game too complex, it just doesn't you know, people will just give up.

所以你需要的是挑战和随之而来的成就感。

So what you need to do is you need challenges and you need victories that come.

所以你需要调整游戏的难度，让玩家一进入游戏就能立刻上手，同时感到有挑战。

So you need to make the game scale such that when people enter the game, right away they figure things out and ready to go, they're challenged.

这两点都需要做到。

Both things need to happen.

那怎么做到呢？

So how do do that?

嗯，这就是为什么那些低端的烂牌很重要。

Well, that's where bad cards, especially from the lower end, are important.

你需要让新玩家一进门，第一次看到游戏时，就觉得，哦，这个比那个好。

You need the new player when they walk in the door and they look at the game for the first time to go, oh, this is better than that.

他们一进门就需要这种感觉，即使他们不一定完全正确。

They right off the door, they need now, even if, by the way, they're not a 100% correct.

比如说，我们跟新玩家学到的，一个很明显的事情就是，他们觉得越大越好，就像之前看到的。

For example, one of the things we've learned with a new player, you know, that's a very obvious thing is they assume bigger is better, like seen from earlier.

你知道吗，我记得我开第一包卡的时候，我有一张1/1的。

You know, like, I remember when I opened my first pack, I had a crawl one minute.

那时候，在alpha测试的时候，他们给的普通卡有点少，你知道吗？

Now, back in the day, back in alpha, they were a little they were a little stingier common, you know?

所以，我有一张1/1，一张2/2，可能还有一张3/3，然后一张6/4。

So, like, I had one ones, two two, maybe a three three, and then a six four.

6/4，这玩意儿太厉害了，你知道吗？

Six four, this thing is awesome, you know?

我当时觉得自己好像发现了什么不得了的东西。

And I felt like I cracked something.

这很重要。

That's important.

顺便说一句，他们总是判断正确并不是关键。

By the way, the fact that they are always correct is is not key.

你要让他们有成就感。

You want them to have victories.

他们以后可以慢慢明白，有些所谓的胜利其实不算真正的胜利，只要他们感觉自己学到了东西就行。

They can later learn that some of the victories weren't really victories as long as they that the sense is feeling like they learned something.

你懂吗？

You know?

但有些胜利必须是真实的，而且有些关于差卡牌的原因——哦，我讲岔了。

But some of the victories have to be true, and some of the reasons for bad cards oh, I got past the accident.

那段话不算太长，不，不是。

That was not a very long no.

然后观众就会说，不对。

Then the audience is like, no.

事故在哪呢？

Where's the accident?

所以我知道你们不是在期待事故，你们只是在期待那个卡住的感觉，不是那个口音。

So I know you guys aren't rooting for an accident, but you're you're just rooting for the jam, not the not the accent.

所以总之，你需要确保有些胜利是真实的、诚实的胜利，而其中一部分就是，你看，你得把一些牌设计得特别差，差到让低水平的玩家一看就说，哦，我才不会玩那个。

So anyway, the you you need to make sure that you some of the victories are true honest victories, and part of that is, look, you need to put cards in so bad so bad that lower level players go, oh, I'm not gonna play that.

而且关键是，玩家，尤其是新手玩家，他们自己判断事情的能力非常有限。

And here's the thing, players, especially beginning players, have very little ability to to correctly figure things out.

但他们还是有一点判断力的，所以你要做的就是利用这一点。

But they have some, and so what you need to do is play into that.

有趣的是，有些挑战其实是虚假的挑战，或者说虚假的胜利，他们以为自己学到了东西，但后来发现还得重新学。

Now the funny thing is some of the challenges, right, are false challenges in which, you know, or false victories in which they think they learned something and then later they learned they need to relearn it.

哦，我又停下来了。

Oh, me stopped again.

今天真是走走停停的疯狂一天。

I don't today is a crazy day of stop and go.

所以你要给人们一个合适的范围。

So you wanna have a nice a nice range for people.

这是最重要的一点。

So that's the number one thing.

那些差牌能让低水平的玩家获得胜利和挑战，从而有机会进步。

The bad cards allow your lower end players to have their victories and have their challenges and be able to move up.

另外，你需要让顶尖玩家有优势。

Another thing that you need is you want your top players to have an advantage.

很多游戏犯的错误就是给顶尖玩家太多优势。

Now, a lot of games make the fault of giving the top players too much advantage.

在你的游戏中，重要的是让低水平玩家有打败顶尖玩家的梦想。

It is important in your game that the begin that the low level player has the dream of beating the top end player.

他们大多数时候不应该赢，但他们可以有这个梦想。

They shouldn't beat them most of the time, but they can have the dream.

如果一个游戏连这种梦想都没有，那玩家就很难入坑了。

And a game in which you don't have the dream is a lot harder to get into.

因为如果每个人都比你强，而且总能赢你，那就没有希望了。

Because if everybody's better than you is gonna always beat you, there's no hope.

而游戏需要希望。

And games need hope.

你明白吗？

You know?

作为玩家，你需要觉得，如果一切顺利，如果运气爆棚，你知道，我能打败世界上最好的万智牌玩家。

You, the player, need to feel like if things go right, if if if the stars align, you know, I can beat the best magic player in the world.

我能打败约翰·芬克尔，或者任何被认为是顶尖玩家的人。

I can beat John Finkel or whoever whoever would determine who's the best player.

不知道具体是谁。

Don't know who much people could be.

但我能打败史上最强的万智牌玩家，你知道，如果运气好的话。

But I can beat the best magic player ever, you know, if if if the stars shine, you know.

你知道吗，比如说，我个人就赢过约翰·芬克尔。

You know, and for example, I I personally have beaten John Finkel.

其实我跟他交手次数不多，我也记不清了。

Now I've only played him I don't know.

我这辈子大概跟他打过十次，他可能赢了九次。

He's maybe played 10 times in my life, and he's probably beaten nine out of 10.

但我确实赢过他一次，你知道吗，那种感觉挺有意思的，就是那种‘嘿’的感觉。

But I did beat him once, and, you know, that that that is there's something fun about going, hey.

说明我还是有机会赢他的。

There was a chance I was able to do it.

我可能真的赢过他两次，不过反正次数不多。

I might actually beat him twice, but anyway, not not many times.

之所以要这样设计，是因为你想给水平较低的玩家希望，但同时也要让顶尖玩家感到自信。

And the the the reason that you want to give that is that the you wanna give hope to the lower end player, but at the same time, you want the top end player to feel confident.

你明白吗？

You know?

如果你的游戏随机性太大或者缺乏技巧性，那么顶尖玩家就会想，我为什么要玩这个？

If your game has too much randomness in it or lack of skill, then the top end player goes, why am I playing this?

对我来说，投入精力没有优势，你知道，我为什么要花时间和精力去学习东西呢？

There's no advantage for sticking in energy for me, you know, why am I gonna spend my time and energy to learn things?

我在我的十大文章里谈过策略有多重要。

I talked about how important strategy was strategy was in my top 10 article.

对吧？

Right?

关于游戏需要的十大要素的播客和文章。

Of top 10 things the game needs podcast and article.

那部分很重要。

And that part of that's important.

所以你需要让新手玩家不迷失方向，同时也要让有经验的玩家觉得有提升和成就的空间，好像成为更好的玩家是有回报的。

So you both need your beginning player not to get lost, and you need your experienced player to feel like there is there is something that that that they can get better and achieve as if there is there is a reward for for being the better player.

所以烂牌不仅让最差的玩家有机会赢，也能帮助更好的玩家。

So bad cards not only help the worst player have the chance to win, they also help the better player.

等等。

Wait.

什么？

What?

怎么会这样？

How is that?

原因如下。

And here's why.

在设计时，我们采用的是所谓的“平级强度”。

So in design, we play what we call flat power level.

这意味着我们把所有卡牌的费用都设定为可用的。

And what that means is is we cost all the cards to be playable.

我们为什么要这么做？

Why do we do that?

我们这么做的原因是，设计测试，尤其是早期设计测试的目标，并不是为了感受一个平衡的环境。

The reason we do that is the goal of design playtest, especially early design playtest, is not to get the sense of a balanced environment.

那是后期设计和开发阶段的事。

That's late design and development.

早期设计阶段，我只想玩所有的卡牌。

Early design, I just wanna play with all the cards.

我只是想看看效果。

I just wanna see things.

这个好玩吗？

Is this fun?

那个好玩吗？

Is that fun?

所以所有卡牌的费用都定得很激进，因为我们就是想玩一玩。

And so everything's very aggressively costed because we just wanna play with it.

现在有个问题，当你去组卡组的时候，什么都能组。

Now, one of the problems is when you go to build decks, you can build anything.

组卡并不难。

It's not hard to build.

组牌没什么挑战性。

There's not a lot of challenge in building a deck.

什么都挺好的。

Everything's good.

什么都能放进去。

Anything can go in.

现在，我的目标不是追求最优。

Now, my goal there is not to maximize.

我不是想挑战自己作为组牌者的能力。

I'm not trying to challenge myself as a deck builder.

在那个阶段，我是想尝试新东西。

At that point, I'm trying to experiment.

所以，我有很多动力去尝试不同的卡牌。

And so, I have a lot of motivations to play different cards.

我会想，哦，我以前从没这么干过。

I'm oh, I've never done that before.

让我看看那是什么感觉，你知道吗。

Let me see what that's like, you know.

而且在早期设计阶段，我们的目标其实是——有时候我们会遇到一个问题，就是开发者在玩早期设计测试时，会试图组出最好的牌组。

And that in early design, the goal in fact, one of the problems we have sometimes is when developers play an early design playtest, they try to build the best deck they can.

很多时候，我得跟他们说，哦，不。

And a lot of times, I have to say to them, oh, no.

不。

No.

不。

No.

还没到时候。

Not yet.

就找点好玩的东西来玩，你知道吗。

Just find something fun to play, you know.

或者即使他们——比如说他们做了一次测试，组了最好的牌组，那也行。

And or even if they let's say they do one playtest where they build the best deck, go, fine.

你已经做到了。

You did that.

下次测试的时候，换不同的颜色试试。

Now next playtest, play different colors.

你知道的，我们早期设计测试的目的不是找出哪里有问题。

You know, you know, our our goal is not to find what's broken in in the early design playtest.

而是要找出什么是有趣好玩的。

It's to find what is interesting and fun.

总之，我提到这个是因为我玩过很多次平衡性设计。

Anyway, I bring this up because I have played a lot with a flat power level.

我参与了很多设计工作。

I play a lot of design.

我意识到的一件事是，比如我们会邀请公司里的其他人来玩。

And one of the things I realized is so for example, we will invite other people in the pit to play.

有些人之前从来没玩过。

And some of them have never played before.

与此同时，我是负责人。

Meanwhile, I'm the lead.

大多数时候，我每个系列都玩过。

I played every set most of the time.

每一次测试我都参加了。

Every I've been in every single playtest.

所以我发现，如果我在密封赛测试中，和一个第一次或第二次玩就赢的人对战，而我已经玩了二十次了，我的优势其实没那么大，因为他们不太可能犯大错。

And so what I've discovered is if I have a sealed playtest and I'm playing with someone who wins their first or second time playing and I have played, you know, 20 times, I have much less advantage because they can't go that far wrong.

你知道吗？

You know?

而且一旦强度水平拉平，强度就来自协同效应，而不是单张卡牌。

And what happens is once you have a flat power level, power then comes from synergy, not from individual cards.

你知道吗？

You know?

所以，是的，我的牌组确实好一点。

And so, yeah, my deck's a little better.

我知道哪些牌搭配起来更好，而且我更有感觉，你懂的。

I know which cards play better with each other and I have a better sense, you know.

所以虽然有点需要判断的地方，但我的选择少了很多。

So there's a little bit of thing to gauge, but I have a lot less to choose.

这个想法是，如果万智牌完全平衡，那么任何轮抽的人都不会差太远。

And the idea is if if magic was completely flat, then anybody who drafted wouldn't be that far off.

我的意思是，更好的玩家会更注重协同，他们的牌组会稍微好一点，但不会好太多。

I mean, the better players would be more synergistic and they had slightly better decks, but not not that much better decks.

你懂吗？

You know?

关于烂牌的一点是，不是所有人都知道哪些牌是烂牌。

And one of the things about having bad cards is not everybody knows who the bad cards are.

你懂吗？

You know?

所以，你知道，一个玩家可能会拿一张其实不太好的牌，让更好的玩家拿到更好的牌，而且，你知道，好牌和烂牌之间的巨大差距确实给了更好的玩家很大的优势，因为他们能最大化地理解好与坏，而水平较低的玩家做不到。

And so, you know, a a player might take something that's really not that good, allowing the better player to take the better card and that, you know, having the the wide spectrum of good to bad really does give the better players a huge leg up because they now can maximize understanding good from bad, where a less good player won't.

每当我谈到这个，谈到这种均衡的设计，总会有人说，等等，你们能做到均衡的设计？

Now, whenever I talk about this, whenever I talk about the flat level design, I always get people that say, wait, wait a minute, you can make a flat level design?

那你们为什么不这么做呢？

Why don't you do that?

你们应该这么做。

You should do that.

万智牌应该这么做。

Magic should do that.

如果万智牌是均衡设计的，那它会更棒。

Magic would be more awesome if magic had a flat design.

所以答案是，在开发过程中我们没法做到这一点，是有原因的。

So the answer is there's reasons we can't do that in development.

我很快讲一下。

I'll real quick get into it.

我更多是个设计师，但我明白这里面的原理。

It's more I'm more a designer, but I I understand the principles here.

首先，你不可能在不做我们所说的强度提升的情况下，把每张卡都做到你需要的水平，当然，肯定会有强度膨胀，因为有些东西是已经存在的。

One is that you can't make everything at the level you need to be without doing what we call power well, either well, for sure you do power creep because there's things that preexist.

如果你想让这些卡牌平等，你就得开始提高强度水平，让所有东西都平等。

Well, if you want these cards to to be equal, you know, you start having to raise the power level to make everything be equal.

然后随着时间推移，整体强度就会膨胀。我喜欢让大家这样想：把强度想象成一种资源，设计开发团队只有这么多。

And then the you'll have overall power group as you go along that, you know the the way I I like people to think about it is, imagine power being a resource that the design development team only has so much.

他们有一个强度池，能放多少点，我经常这么说。

You know, they have a tank of power and they can put so many or or points is how I often talk about it.

他们只有这么多点数可以分配。

They have so many points to distribute.

关键是，他们没有足够的点数来分配所有东西。

And the point is they they they don't they don't have enough points to distribute everything.

如果他们能，整体强度水平就会上升，然后你就会遇到强度膨胀的问题。

If they did, the overall power level would raise and then you have power grid problems.

至于强度膨胀，如果你不知道那是什么，想象一下我们做了一套卡，然后下一套卡比第一套更强。

And with power creep, for those who don't know what that is, is imagine we made a set and the next set, the cards are better than the first set.

那现在你就不想玩第一套了，你想玩第二套。

Well, now you don't wanna play the first set, you wanna play the second set.

但为了做第三套，那些卡就得比第二套更强。

But in order to make a third set, those have to be more powerful than the second set.

所以你就得不断让东西变得更强，结果就是，一开始的时候，造成三点伤害就算不错了。

And so you keep having to make things more powerful and what happens is, well, in the beginning, you know, do three damage was good.

现在你得造成四点伤害。

Well, now you have to do four damage.

现在你得造成五点伤害。

Now you have to do five damage.

你知道，最后就变成不断升级再升级，游戏就失控了。

Know, you get to the point where it just escalates and escalates and the game spirals out of control.

开发团队非常努力地防止这种情况发生，用的是一种我称之为“埃舍尔楼梯”的方法。

And the development team works really hard to keep that from happening using a device that I call the Escher stairwell.

所谓“埃舍尔楼梯”，指的是埃舍尔，一位以画视错觉闻名的艺术家。

What an Escher stairwell means is Escher is an artist who is famous for drawing optical illusions.

他有一幅著名的画作就是楼梯，他画了好多这样的。

And one of his famous paint ings is a stairwell he has a bunch of these.

画里有个楼梯，人们不停地往上走。

Where there's a stairway where people keep walking up.

但显然，你不可能一直往上走，但在视错觉里就可以。

That no matter what but obviously, you can't keep walking up, but you can in an optical illusion.

开发团队的做法是，把一些东西做得更好，让它们成为焦点，然后把其他东西压下去。

And the way that development does this is they make some things better that become the focus and then put other things down.

焦点不在那些较弱的东西上，而是在那些更强的东西上。

And the focus isn't on the things that are weaker, focus on the things that are stronger.

所以因为你总是盯着更强的东西看，每套牌看起来都有更强的，但你没注意到后面那些变弱的。

So since you are always looking at the stronger stuff, it seems like each set, something stronger and something is, but you're you're not sort of watching what's weaker behind it.

不过话说回来，卡牌不好的另一个重要原因是，它们不可能全都好。

But anyway, another really important reason that cards are bad is they can't all be good.

我们做不到。

We can't.

我们做不到。

We couldn't do it.

你明白吗？

You know?

而且环境中能用的卡牌数量是有限的。

And there's only so many cards that can be played in the environment.

你懂吧？

You know?

我在文章里提到过，就是说，如果你说，好吧，我们就把目标定为让所有东西尽可能平衡。

I talked about this in my article, which is, you know, if you said, okay, let's let's make our goal to make things as flat as possible.

即便如此，总会有一些东西更好。

Even then, something's just gonna be better.

也许是因为协同效应更好，也许只是有适合它的卡组，等等。

Maybe it's synergistically better, maybe just there's a deck for it to be played in, whatever.

总有一些原因让某些卡牌比其他卡牌更好。

There's a reason by which some cards are better than other cards.

你知道吗？

You know?

而且强度是相对的。

And power is relative.

你知道吗？

You know?

像这样的回手牌可能是史上最强的万智牌。

And such a recall might be the most powerful magic card ever made.

我是说，虽然有些争议，但绝对是最强的之一。

I mean, there's some arguments there, but one of the most powerful ever made.

但如果明天我让你抽五张牌，那你抽三张牌看起来就有点弱了。

But tomorrow I make you draw five cards, then you draw three cards looks kinda weak.

我是说，你抽七张牌看起来就更弱了。

I mean, you draw seven cards looks even weaker.

你知道吗，这完全取决于视角，而且所谓的弱只是相对于其他存在的东西而言的。

You know, it's all a matter of perspective, you know, and that what's bad is just correlated to other things that exist.

但我们不可能让所有东西都强，因为不管我们怎么做，总会有更强的。

But we can't make everything good because no matter what we do, there's always gonna be something better.

我是说，我们并不是……首先，我们有法力系统作为我们主要的平衡工具。

I mean, we're not we're not such I mean, first of all, we have we have the mana system to work with as our our major tool for balance.

这个系统并不完美。

Not a perfect system.

很多时候，一个法术的正确费用其实是两点三加一点红，或者三点加一点四红，但万智牌做不到这一点。

You know, a lot of times, the right cost of the spell really would be, you know, 2.3 and a red, you know, or three and one point four reds, you know, but magic magic can't handle that.

所以这是一个不精确的系统。

So it's it's it's an intersystem.

这意味着你甚至不能把牌做得完全一样。

So it means it's you can't even make the cars exactly the same.

而且，加上很多其他因素，总会有更好的选择。

And right, with with a lot of other factors, something's always gonna be the better thing.

总会有好的东西。

Something's always gonna be good.