Inverse KOTC

Inverse King of the Controller: The Superior Scheme

I “invented” (I’m probably not the first person to discover this, but I did come up with it without prior art.) an improved scheme for sharing the controller in “fighting game” or “controller based gamer scenarios”.

In the traditional King of the Controller, the winner holds on to the controller. This system tends towards an equilibrium: the best player just sits with the controller, besting all comers, until someone lucks into beating them.

“Inverse” King of the Controller, the winner of the match is the one who passes off the controller.

Here’s why it’s great:

• “Won’t good players just throw the game to keep the controller?” - hell no they won’t, everybody is too competitive for this to happen. You want to give up the controller because it means you won, and giving up the controller feels good rather than bad.
• Bad players get more time, rather than less time with the game, giving them more of a chance to polish their skills, and making them increasingly desperate to escape by winning a match. This actually keeps the local skill curve much more balanced!

As a result of an Inverse KoTC system, our office Towerfall pool became extremely competitive and evenly matched.