This was a lo y goal because AoE2 is a complicated game, and nongamers lack the background to learn
How Feedback from Typical Gamers Can Help Avoid Disappointing Outcomes 267
Figure 1
Gaming expertise: a comparison of hypothetical distributions of gaming expertise for typical gamers and
typical game developers. This ?¬? gure illustrates how all game developers know more about games than all but
the most dedicated gamers. The point of this ?¬? gure is to show how game developers can??™t simply make games
that are only accessible to people like themselves if they want to make a game that the majority of gamers can
understand and enjoy.
268 Chapter 9: Playtesting
the game on their own. We also knew from testing that the ?¬? rst AoE was a di?¬? cult game to learn for some
experienced gamers.
To achieve this level of accessibility, it would be necessary to provide a robust tutorial and do a great
deal of user testing. The details of the testing are be er described in a di?¬? erent article, but the following
anecdote from the ?¬? nal test of the tutorial gives a bit of ?¬‚ avor.
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