Learning through failure

["Jon A. Lambert" <jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com>]

forwarded from rec.games.mud.admin

In article <34394304.3B5D#netusa,net>, rscott#netusa,net says...
>
>One of my theories is that skills should go up via success (ala
>runequest), but rather via failure.  Every 10 failures gives you a
>small increase in skill.  Once you are at the higher proficiency
>levels, failures come few and far inbetween, thus making it harder to
>advance.
>
>---ralph

I found this idea rather interesting.  If failure is used as the 
basis for calculating a possible skill increase, one should be able
to implement a fixed scale for all skills, say 1% - 99% for 
instance.  This allows a fairly rapid early development becoming
progressively more difficult as one's skills approach the 100%
mark.  Couple this with a skill decay system and you have something
nice and simple.  Well maybe too simple...  Repeated mindless 
execution may pose a problem.  I like the idea of skills approaching
a maximum threshold that they cannot attain.

--
Jon A. Lambert

If I'd known it was harmless, I would have killed it myself.