Musical Association in YGO Video Games - by Baneful
June 2014

 

One mechanic most of the Yugioh video games has is it uses music to convey how well you are doing in a duel. Music and sounds can often be used in a Pavlovian sense to make the brain associate things together.

If your life points are low enough, the music will become fast-paced and more frantic. If your life points are higher, the music will be brighter and more vibrant like a victory parade.

The game is basically conveying the idea that the metric of how well you are doing in a duel is based on life point advantage. However, historically, in tournament play, the main factor in winning a duel has always been Field and Hand advantage.

If anything, the games should follow this paradigm:

3 less cards in your hand/field than opponent = frantic music
3 more cards in your hand/field than opponent = victory music

Sure, it's reductive and there are some concerns. How should tokens be counted? And cards like Thunder Dragon providing a false sense of +1, but in the end, we're better off with teaching newer players the right concept rather than teaching them the wrong one.

 

- Baneful

 

banefulscolumn@gmail.com