You’ve probably heard of the mystic “spreadsheets.” Almost all gamers have heard of them, and anyone who works in an office has a passing familiarity with them. But how many of you know how to use them, really use them, not just creating simple tables?
I’ve mentioned the game Kingdom of Loathing before on here. Its my favorite game, and spreadsheets play a huge part in it (for some people). See, there’s two ways to play a game, any game at all: Casually, or Hardcore. Casual is pretty simple, you sit down and play, nothing complicated at all about that, and most games design at least a portion of the game for that kind of person. Hardcore is, well, hardcore. A hardcore player spends hours researching things, digging through piles of old data and numbers to try and come up with the “Optimal” thing to do. That’s what Hardcore players, real hardcore players, love Spread Sheets. See, spreadsheets are all about taking a bunch of numbers, and giving you something usable out of it.
So what makes a good spreadsheet? There’s a couple things you need:
Data. Lots of data, usually in the form of percentages and the like
Inputs. Good spreadsheets don’t just work in one situation, they let you put your situation in and pull up the best thing to do.
Results. The spreadsheet has to create results of some sort, and answer.
Thats it. Over the next few weeks I’ll be working on this, and doing a nice introduction to spreadsheeting.
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