As I've mentioned before, I find the game Universal Paperclips fascinating:
https://universalpaperclips.fandom.com/wiki/Universal_Paperclips_Wiki
I think a stated goal of the creator was to construct a minimal addictive game. And one of the things that makes it addictive is (almost) monotonically increasing numbers. People love the feeling of making progress and love to see numbers indicating this.
I think this was a killer feature of D&D: your experience points, your level, your hit dice, the level of spell you have access to, the number of spells you have, your armour class, your wealth. This was lacking from other role-playing-ish games and was lacking from almost all of the history of wargames. Some wargames allowed for a tiny amount of improvement - like morale could increase for a unit after a successful battle and some units might be promoted to veterans.
But D&D offered long term fine-grained progress. Even if you didn't just go up a level you could see your XP go up after each battle inching you closer. It's exciting.
I think it's something that's easy to take for granted. The idea of role-playing was itself such an exciting one that you can miss that visible measurable progress was important.
I doesn't mean everyone plays for numbers today. I just think this feature was something that helped get D&D the critical mass it needed because it appealed to enough people.
And I have to admit, I see it in myself when playing retro JPRGs on my Miyoo Mini. At any moment in time one of the characters in your party seems close to the next level so you always feel like you need to fight one more battle before you stop for today...
Dan Piponi
npub1xs…fgrae
2026-01-10 21:22:35 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…nd9f
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npub1xs30e0pj7velktf5sxewnqf93tu2pdt3s6wtl6fug2tzgy8zxthsgfgraePublished at
2026-01-10 21:22:35 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "As I've mentioned before, I find the game Universal Paperclips fascinating:\n\nhttps://universalpaperclips.fandom.com/wiki/Universal_Paperclips_Wiki\n\nI think a stated goal of the creator was to construct a minimal addictive game. And one of the things that makes it addictive is (almost) monotonically increasing numbers. People love the feeling of making progress and love to see numbers indicating this.\n\nI think this was a killer feature of D\u0026D: your experience points, your level, your hit dice, the level of spell you have access to, the number of spells you have, your armour class, your wealth. This was lacking from other role-playing-ish games and was lacking from almost all of the history of wargames. Some wargames allowed for a tiny amount of improvement - like morale could increase for a unit after a successful battle and some units might be promoted to veterans.\n\nBut D\u0026D offered long term fine-grained progress. Even if you didn't just go up a level you could see your XP go up after each battle inching you closer. It's exciting.\n\nI think it's something that's easy to take for granted. The idea of role-playing was itself such an exciting one that you can miss that visible measurable progress was important.\n\nI doesn't mean everyone plays for numbers today. I just think this feature was something that helped get D\u0026D the critical mass it needed because it appealed to enough people.\n\nAnd I have to admit, I see it in myself when playing retro JPRGs on my Miyoo Mini. At any moment in time one of the characters in your party seems close to the next level so you always feel like you need to fight one more battle before you stop for today...",
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