18.6.6 What do you think about auto-setting many of the display options based on user specs? Who should be in charge of these options?

Personally, I like a game that first tells me its recommendations given my configuration, then later allows me to change them myself. I also prefer the game to tell me the potential effects of what I'm changing... for example, if there are 40 settings but changing this ONE will really give me the most bang for the buck, then I want to know that without having to test each setting.

Tough thing to ask for, but I think it's quite doable. In fact, many of today's games include quite healthy arrays of settings that you can tweak. Some leave them completely open for you to play with at a whim, and others bury them in often cryptic configuration files.

To my way of thinking, balance is the key here. Give players the ability to monkey around with things, but give them the comfort of knowing that if things get too screwed up, they can hit a "Reset to Defaults" button and be all happy again. - Ryan Elam, Lead Programmer

View Printable Version