Min-maxing

Min-maxing is the practice of playing a role-playing game, wargame or video game with the intent of creating the "best" character by means of minimizing undesired or unimportant traits and maximizing desired ones.^[1] This is usually accomplished by improving one specific trait or ability by sacrificing ability in all other fields. This is easier to accomplish in games where attributes are generated from a certain number of points rather than in ones where they are randomly generated.^[2] Min-maxing is particularly common in games where the cost of traits does not reflect their expected usefulness; for instance, in a combat-heavy game a player may focus on physical traits, giving a character abnormally low mental and social skills so that the remaining points can all be channeled to physical statistics that are more likely to come into play.

Some video games have guides dedicated to building the absolute "best" character. Min-maxing in video games is considered expert-level play as it requires a perfect understanding of the game's mechanics and systems, but once it is achieved, a game is no longer challenging.^[3]

See also

• Munchkin (role-playing games)
• Optimization (role-playing games)
• Powerleveling
• Powergaming
• Twinking

References

1. ↑ Savage (2014-10-16). "Min-Maxing (concept)". GiantBomb. Retrieved 2014-11-10. 
2. ↑ Masters, Phil (1994). "The Vocabulary of Role-Playing". Interactive Fantasy (2). 
3. ↑ Josh Bycer (2014-07-29). "Min/Max Mastery in Game Design". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2014-11-10.