There seems to be only a few ways of progressing in games. Here's my list: 1) "Amassing"~This is the prevailant method taken by Adventure games. Simply, to finish the game you get more stuff and use it. 2) "Rewards"~You do something, and you get something in return. In RPGs this is higher levels. In Adventures it's comes in the form of another 'key' or the opening of a passage. 3) "Returns"~You recieve an improvement in you character or your items for 'investing' a skill or item, respectively. RPGs implement this as a 'skill' or 'job' system where you only get better in an ability by working directly with it. 4) "Elimination"~Removing all obstacles is the way to win these games. For RTS games, this means laying waste to your enemies and their facilities. Similar are many board games. The objective of Chess is purely the removal of the other player's King. Even Tetris{tm} runs on this system -- get rid of the blocks. 5) "Racing"~Get to the end first. 'Kiddy Karts' anyone? And, added in from others' postings: 6) "Learning"~All functions of the game are available from the start of the game. The player is taught in game what these functions are as they progress. Thus, someone who has played the game before will know how to use these functions from the start of the game. The spells in "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" were a good example of this; you can pull them off before you every find out about them in the game, but they are complex enough that you will not "stumble" upon them. It's an interesting technique when you consider replay value. --- Paraphrased from an Anonymous Poster So, is there anything we've missed? Any new ideas? -----Sonic Silicon----- Edited by - SonicSilcion on 7/7/00 9:11:27 AM

Okay, I''ve added Learning to the list.

Well you could make "learning" more complete by adding next to it "and training".
Learning is not enough.Practical training adds ability to your knowledge.

It is not enough to know what a spell does.You must be trained to it.

Voodoo4