I think the article's abstraction of the problem was overly mechanistic. Similar to parent comment, fighting from the hallway is a legal and strictly dominant

I think the article's abstraction of the problem was overly mechanistic. Similar to parent comment, fighting from the hallway is a legal and strictly dominant strategy. The MGS-style counter was to have enemies notice you, communicate your location to other enemies, who would then approach from behind your location, mooting your advantage. The Half Life et al. counter was to have enemies telegraph an attack strategy shift, which would again moot your advantage. E.g. "He's hiding in the hall, tossing grenade!" I think this is the fundamental difference between Doom-likes and HL-likes. The former sees level design as a primary focus, and the latter sees AI behavior as a primary focus. Borderland-likes probably fall somewhere in the middle. Also, re: "playing to win", Sirlin's masterpiece, for those who haven't read it. http://www.sirlin.net/ptw http://www.sirlin.net/ptw