Then realisation hit me. In real world an extraordinarily efficient way of doing things is good, it’s called an invention. In a game it is called cheating. Nature doesn’t care what smart tricks you used to achieve your goals. In a game if it wasn’t anticipated by developers it probably counts as an exploit. The universe has a set of unchanging rules, a game is perpetually balanced by series of patches and crutches in unpredictable places. By being creative you are fighting against game developers, which is pointless because they will actively oppose and get rid of you through their control over the sandbox. You aren’t expected to have hacker (in the original meaning of the word) kind of fun in such games.
I think you need to go play some Magic: The Gathering. The kind of exploration you describe is actively encouraged by the game design—and you get the equivalent of a significant rules change roughly three and a half times a year, with the release of every new card set. The developers definitely do NOT think of everything, and they expect us to surprise them.
Then realisation hit me. In real world an extraordinarily efficient way of doing things is good, it’s called an invention. In a game it is called cheating. Nature doesn’t care what smart tricks you used to achieve your goals. In a game if it wasn’t anticipated by developers it probably counts as an exploit. The universe has a set of unchanging rules, a game is perpetually balanced by series of patches and crutches in unpredictable places. By being creative you are fighting against game developers, which is pointless because they will actively oppose and get rid of you through their control over the sandbox. You aren’t expected to have hacker (in the original meaning of the word) kind of fun in such games.
I think you need to go play some Magic: The Gathering. The kind of exploration you describe is actively encouraged by the game design—and you get the equivalent of a significant rules change roughly three and a half times a year, with the release of every new card set. The developers definitely do NOT think of everything, and they expect us to surprise them.