[MUD-Dev] Alright... IF your gonan do DESIESE...

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

Marian Griffith wrote:
> 
> In general this isn't something you want to promote on a game. On
> the other hand there's many incompetent players and you need to
> placate those as well or they'll leave. And none of the good players
> wants to stay on a mud where nobody can appreciate how good they are.

Just thought I'd mention that I for one would PREFER that the
incompetent players go play somewhere else. ;)
 
> There's
> a lot of possibilities between. Like loosing half your experience points.
> Or being unable to reincarnat unless you receive generous help from other
> players (for no reward to them). Or maybe loosing half your levels. Or
> only 5. Depending on how harsh the game is people will be willing to
> risk more or less.

There's also some concern as to how quickly they can get the risked
items back. If it's too easy, death becomes very very cheap; a good
example might be Quake. Die, respawn. Die, respawn. Die, respawn.
There's very little penalty; you can get yourself back into the same
position you were in before in a matter of minutes. If it's too hard,
people begin to get paranoid; they risk nothing, because to lose
anything at all means weeks or months of work. 

In most MUDs, any common setback is generally a matter of a few hours.
The problem is that you can have similar setbacks every few minutes; to
significantly change the effort a setback takes to overcome makes the
game less than fun. MUDs move quickly.

> If you stop playing you will gradually slide down the scale
> again until you reach newby stages.

I don't like this idea. I think it's a really, really bad one. But
that's my opinion... see, I play most MUDs on a spurt basis. I play a
MUD for two or three days, go away for a week or so, and then come back.
A system like this encourages everyone to log on day after day for
extended periods, and most of those who have lives and jobs will quickly
become less valued and respected. I've been known to take three weeks
off of a MUD because I'm working fifteen hour days, only logging on for
a second or two to ensure the character doesn't get deleted. Some people
don't like this sort of play; they'd rather have a core group of people
that are online a lot. But not all of us are still in college or able to
log on from work without difficulty.