I have been thinking about this subject off and on for some time, and now I would like to run it by the rest of you. I have played my share of RPGs, online and offline. Of all of those, I cannot think of any that did not show numeric representations of damage dealt and healing received. For example in Skies of Arcadia one of the characters would attack an enemy and a number would appear showing how much damage was done. I think we are all familiar enough with this idea so let me get to my question. Some games use very low numbers in the characters stats and in combat. Mario RPG is a perfect example, where 999 was the most damage you could do. In other games huge numbers are common place. In Two Moons some characters deal 10,000 damage regularly! You could consider World of Warcraft to be in the middle, but with the advent of level 70 and soon 80, we will see 1000 points of white damage on a regular basis. I am curious as to how people decide on these numbers, but I am more curious as to what the pros and cons are for these decisions. I have some of my own opinions I would like to share after I hear some responses. Consider the impact it has on the development of the game, the entertainment value of the game and of course the social effects. To Be Continued...

I think the damage dealt is rather inconsequential to the game itself. Rather the balancing of attacks and the ratio of damage dealt between attacks is what's most important. There are a few things to consider, of course. The amount of damage must be reasonable relative to the amount of health any character can have. If you deal 10,000 damage in an attack, you will need larger enemies with at least several times that much health.

Similarly you will need to deal damage with varieties suited to the variety of attacks available, and character progression. In some games, for example, you may start dealing only 3-5 damage. At the end you may deal up to 20-30 or more, depending on how much progress can be made. In other games, you may want to consider different types of attacks and different levels of damage dealt by armour type and similar effects. The greater the number of factors effecting damage, the greater variety and the larger the number you may want.

The extra zeros make it sound like a lot more also, which in turn makes the player think he is really good at the game. Many games have done it before and I think there was actually an article on this site that mentions something like that.

I've actually thought about this before while playing some games. One of them awarded hundreds of thousands of 'points' for each kill.

The only meaningful difference I find, is when you're trying to buy something, and it costs 1000000000 points/gold/experience. It's just annoying to figure out each time just how many zeroes you need. And I make mistakes sometimes, then realize I need 10x the amount that I have.

As far as the emotional aspect, ridiculously large numbers can sometimes feel overwhelming, as if the pacing is too fast.
Numbers that are too small might make you feel that the game is slow-moving and boring.

Personally, I lean towards the lower numbers. It gives me a greater sense of accomplishment. It's also much easier for people to calculate if the game is heavy on the number-crunching like WoW.

I think it is also psychological and a bit practical depending on the game mechanics.

Psychological:

If I spent 3 hours on upgrades and leveling my character, it really is a problem if my damage only went up 3 points. Even if its out of 100, it "appears" like a small amount. But if that yielded me 293 more in damage that I deliver, that seems like a lot!

Practical (as NathanRunge mentions):

If your character damage is increased with your level and your weapon only, then small numbers will suffice. But, if your strenght is calculated based on your job, your class, you level, the armor you have, the weapon you have, the shoes you wear, etc, then you need higher numbers. Otherwise you will have something like (shoes +0.5, armor +0.75, etc.). Better to make them 50 and 75 and therefore bump the top number up too.

You also have to think that in a game like WoW, you are trying to seperate the levels. By having an almost exponential growth in damage and armor on a character, you insure that new characters can't hope to compete in the later parts of the game without dieing instantly. This give the high level players some feeling of acomplishment, knowing that the lower levels can't even survive the same area.

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Original post by Dasubermechen I am curious as to how people decide on these numbers, but I am more curious as to what the pros and cons are for these decisions. I have some of my own opinions I would like to share after I hear some responses. Consider the impact it has on the development of the game, the entertainment value of the game and of course the social effects. To Be Continued...

Really?

People that are accustomed to working with dices, are able to design system that uses low numbers (low numbers are imaginable). People that learned theirs work on universities are using large numbers, however they have problems when 100023 doesn't differ too much from 100025.

The bigger the better I say.

You can have better "error ratio" I guess you can say, where you do damage from 200 to 400 theres a .5 percent chance for one of those numbers, while if you go with 2-4, you got 3 numbers and less variation... seems limited.

I don't know how much that makes sense to you, because it sounds bad the way I'm wording it.

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Original post by KodeNerd The extra zeros make it sound like a lot more also, which in turn makes the player think he is really good at the game. Many games have done it before and I think there was actually an article on this site that mentions something like that.

This is true, and you can see it most obviously in pinball games. Most scores give you things in multiples of 1000 purely because bigger numbers sound more impressive.

Personally I'm unsure all the gazillion stats that plague RPGs are warranted, at least not in such an "in your face" way. However it's now part of the whole genre so I guess it's expected.

I love all the complicated calculations in RPGs, and would even push for more complicated systems, but only when:

a) Said system is behind-the-scenes. It should not be apparent how things are calculated specifically.
b) All elements of the system make sense, and are logical influences.