Strategic Analysis for Academy Level

3

(For Academy Mode Only) After finishing your first game, fill in your game status and answer these 5 questions. See how your gaming strategy implied consumption behaviour and value orientation. All yellow fields are required.

Final HAPPINESS

GOALs achieved

1. How did you spend COINs?

preferred to spend more COINs on fewer MATERIALs. That was quite a good strategy with 3 main benefits, you will:

preferred to spend less and have more MATERIALs. That sounds logical, right? Optimize the chance to hit a matching ACTIVITY! However, your MATERIAL BREAKs after each use and you have to spend another turn to BUY. And no matter BUY 1 or 3, you are only getting 1 HAPPINESS, which later WORK will take away… What about the alternative, spending more on fewer MATERIALs? Let’s break it down, you will:

Spend less on more MATERIALs

Spend more on fewer MATERIALs

2. How did you treat FAVOURs played on you?

REJECT than ACCEPT. You might think why ACCEPT when I can REJECT? Why help someone to win? But what if that FAVOUR played on you is also beneficial to you? So, the catch here is not about whether you should REJECT FAVOURs, but which FAVOURs to play to whom and with what reason. 2 cooperating weaker players can always easily overturn a lone leading player.

ACCEPT than REJECT. Very nice! ACCEPTING FAVOURs is the only way to accumulate more than 3 FAVOURs in HAND. The more FAVOURs you have at the start of your CONSUME turn, the more choices and pathways you have on COMPLETING more ACTIVITIES, which makes certain GOALs like TRIUMPH and ALL-ROUND much easier to ACHIEVE.

Prefer to REJECT

Prefer to ACCEPT

3. How did you decide which ACTIVITY to COMPLETE?

only COMPLETE those ACTIVITIES that match your GOAL. You are patient and focus, and it is not at all an easy thing to do, especially when a perfectly matching ACTIVITY is starring at you!

be flexible and COMPLETE ACTIVITIES that your current MATERIALs match. It shows that you realised COMPLETING ACTIVITIES is important to gain HAPPINESS. Now let’s consider this: do you also think every ACTIVITY, no matter which one, all have the same value? And COMPLETING any one of them will always grant you the same 1 point of HAPPINESS?

Strictly stick to ACTIVITIES that match my GOALs

Be flexible and COMPLETE ACTIVITIES that match my current MATERIALs

4. What is the most effective way to gain HAPPINESS?

think WORK for fewer turns is the most effective way to gain HAPPINESS. This is interesting because managing loss could be a good way to “save” HAPPINESS. In the game, we purposefully set WORK to decrease HAPPINESS, but in reality, working is not always stressful, especially when it matches our passion and empowers us with purpose. Besides reducing WORK, there is actually a more effective way.

think choose BUY for more turns is the most effective way to gain HAPPINESS. Have you noticed there is a simple way guarantee to gain HAPPINESS in The L.O.O.P.? You WORK for a turn, then just BUY 1 MATERIAL with QUALITY 1 for all coming turns until you have to WORK again. Brilliant is it? But have you considered you will probably end in DEPLETION before reaching maximum HAPPINESS?

think COMPLETING more ACTIVITIES is the most effective way to gain HAPPINESS. Compare to BUY, which limits to gain 1 HAPPINESS per turn regardless of number of MATERIALs bought; COMPLETING ACTIVITY is more effective. However, it is our GOALs that decide which ACTIVITY is worth our efforts and also boost HAPPINESS once we have ACHIEVED them.

have already discovered the “secret” that ACHIEVING GOALs is the most effective way to gain HAPPINESS.

WORK for fewer turns

BUY for more turns

COMPLETE more ACTIVITIES

ACHIEVE more GOALs

5. Where is the "loop" in this Life Of Ordinary People?

Similar to the loop you have chosen in question 4 of the analysis: using, throwing away and recycling MATERIALs; this is an even bigger loop,

In question 4 of the analysis, you see the loop as players taking turns to do actions. And what are the 3 kinds of action? Exactly! These actions form

As you have chosen in question 4 of the analysis, it is

In question 4 of the analysis, you see the loop as the flow of COINs in between players and SOCIETY. But now, do you see there is an even larger and deeper loop rooted in our material life? That is

Using, throwing away, and recycling MATERIALs

Players take turn to do actions

WORK, BUY, CONSUME, WORK...

The flow of COINs between players and SOCIETY

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