Challenge: Types

I never intended to write that last post. The idea I had was for this post. But I got into a serious thing. And then I forgot how it ended. :P

While I was waiting for the play to start tonight (last night?) I thought about the various forms of challenge TWEWY serves up and how important challenge is to games in general. And I started a list.


Reflexes
Memory
Spacial Reasoning / Awareness
Observation
Math (up through algebra at least)
Endurance (mental and physical)
Lateral Thinking
Pattern Recognition
Timing
Rhythm
Muscle Memory
Improvisation
Prioritizing
Patience
Special Techniques (controlled muscle spasms)

So there's some brainstorming. This is just the list for single player games, obviously. There's a whole pile of social skills that can come into play in multiplayer, especially in challenging cooperative or team games. But this list is already long and may well need further additions.

I thought about trying to sort the items into physical and mental piles, but so many of them live exactly on the boundary between the two. Reflexes? Timing? Rhythm? They're where mind and body meet. And they're all closely related. Are they so related that they should be collapsed? Are timing and rhythm the same thing? I'll have to think about it.

It seems like a lot of these items are related. Pattern recognition requires memory and observation. And prioritizing requires pattern recognition, I think. And pattern recognition is disturbingly broad. That could mean knowing that when an enemy pulls his arm back, it's time to duck. It could mean seeing a deep chess strategy taking form.

Crap. I've bitten off way more than I can chew, haven't I? :P