If there’s one thing you don’t want to mess with, it’s The Laws of the Universe. Going against Mother Nature (or Father Math) can – and will – end you in serious trouble. For your convenience The Laws of The Universe (for Game Designers) investigates the universal and inescapable laws of The Cosmos, and what they mean for us lowly Game Developers. Endorsed by 8 out of 10 Hermits.
#2 – The 80-20 Rule (aka “The Pareto Principle”)
The Pareto Principle states that:
“[...] for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes”.
20% of the effort accounts for 80% of the results. Or so I would have you believe.
Let’s look at some commonly used examples of this principle:
- 80% of the wealth in a country is owned by the 20% richest people.
- 80% of the crashes are mady by 20% of the bugs in your software.
- 80% of the population lives in the 20% most densely populated areas.
The 80-20 division may not be completely accurate for most situations – in some cases not at all – but at least it can serve as a rough guide for typical distributions, and remind us that most things in life is not even!
Basically, the principle claims that a few, select things are VITAL (having a big effect) and a lot of things are TRIVIAL (having less influence).
