[MUD-Dev] Re: Less numbers, more roleplaying.

[Derrick Jones]

On Sun, 23 Nov 1997, Marian Griffith wrote:

> On Sat 15 Nov, coder at ibm.net wrote:
> 
> > On 09/11/97 at 01:46 PM, Adam Wiggins <nightfall at user2.inficad.com> said:
> > >[Marian Griffith:]
> 
> I'm going to snip most of this. Not because I disagree but because I can
> not find anything to add to it.
> [snip]
> 
> > >I think this is the key to the whole issue.  If you get rid of an
> > >'official' (or, more accurately, 'standard') method to play the game, it
> > >will simutaneously appeal to more players from different backgrounds and
> > >with different ideas of what's fun, and be more flexible and thereby more
> > >entertaining in the long run to the players as a whole.
> 
> > >Of course, the
> > >hard part about this is that it's difficult to make a game which seems to
> > >have some sort of purpose to it, especially when you first start the
> > >game.  I think Ultima Online has done a very good job with this sort of
> > >an approach, but still the main complaint I hear (especially from those
> > >used to the more directed form of playin single player computer games) is
> > >that they can't figure out what they should be doing when they start the
> > >game.
> 
> > This is the core of the problem. This parallels the basic definition
> > of what constitutes a game:
> >   A game can be defined as any system which contains goals, barriers, and
> > freedoms.  
> 
> >   Elaborating slightly:
> 
> [snipped]
> 
> > (if the goal is not immediately obvious) it is (much) more difficult
> > to "grab" a potential players attention long enough to convince them
> > that this is something they want to invest time in.
> 
> > The general solution in such cases is to attempt to use "hooks": things
> > that grab and lock attention for just long enough for (hopefully) the
> > other "real" qualities to penetrate and confirm.
> 
> The one advantage that muds still have over other games is that they are
> based on text. Many people still prefer reading a book over watching the
> movie adaption of it  because the book allows them more freedom. Freedom
> to use their imagination,  to create their own pictures  and interpreta-
> tion of the characters, scenes and events in the story.  In a movie this
> is much harder to do as the pictures are much harder to escape and since
> the story has typically to be lobotomised to fit in the 90 or so minutes
> that are available to tell the story in the movie. Muds have an inherent
> literary possibility that can be more fully explored. If the game itself
> allows for it of course.
> 
> > Are MUDs about to lose their player base due to the fact that they have
> > evolved away from simple, instant, playability?
> [snip]
> > Points I would rate as valuable upon introduction to a game:
> >   -- Awareness that I will be able to do interesting "neat" things in the
> > game.
> 
> The biggest problem will be what is considered 'neat' and how well that
> can be combined in a single game.

If you take this into concideration, its boggles the mind that most new
players first steps in a new mud generally follow the same path.
<begin vast generalization\>
==First stop is a linear, poorly documented creation process.  For games
that are designed to create diverging plots, new players sure are forced
to jump thru a bunch of obscure hoops before playing the 'real' game.
This is compounded by the fact that 80% of the decisions made at
creation-time are made arbitrarily because new players generally have no
basis on which to make these choices, as the 'help' files for the creation
process are either useless or non-existant.
==You're then sent some overwritten background story that's generally
next-to-impossible to follow.  Usually these things are streams of run-on
sentences attempting to mimic the grandiose language of bardic tales of
the genre epitomized by Beowolf and company.  All most accomplish
(including most of my own attempts, before I deligated the task to
someone a bit more qualified) is to be unreadable.  Perhaps a smiple
straitforward explaination of the game and gameworld would be far more
appropriate, even if it seems to delay the 'feel' of a herioc epic
landscape.
==Finally, You're dumped into the middle of what is supposed to be your
hometown, yet you recognize no one, and you know where nothing is.  You're
given a few freebees, wished good luck, then sent on your way, typically
without the aid of decent on-line help.
</end rampant generalization>

> >   -- Awareness that there is more to the game than is immediately obvious. 
> [snip]
> 
This shouldn't be too difficult, as all that is immediately obvious to a
new player is that there are a bunch of people running back and forth for
apparently no reason.  Very few of these people stop to talk to the new
players, as they are all busy storming some distant castle.

Some ideas on getting more information to newbies:
Keep an immortal-run bulliten board accessable and obvious to new players.
Keeping the board in the hands of the IMM staff will reduce the noise
ratio.  For new players its difficult to filter the noise with 300
characters running in and out of some central location.  Also keep a
copy of a mortal board nearby to let the new players hear of some of the
recent socializations.  Keep these boards updated and whine-free.  Nothing
turns a new player off faster than seeing 30 who-shot-John flames.

Have a decent 'help' command.  This should go without saying, but help
files are typically an afterthought.  "I don't want to write help files
yet, the design may change..." typically results from "Man help files sure
are boring to write."

Give newbies a map of their hometown, and encourage them to print it out.
This can be justified by the fact that the character should know his/her
way around.  Players will get a quicker sense of where they are if they
have a hard copy map of the starting town, and will feel more like they
belong there.

Provide an IC way to research.  I'm thinking of designing a 'library'
where newbies can learn about the mudworld.  Players will be encouraged to
write their own 'books', which then can be read by players logging on.
This will give more established players to create more of a sense of
permanence while letting the new players get a feel for just how involved
the 'world' you have created has become.  Their will also be a series of
how-to books, history books, and information geared to getting players
motivated to undertake various quests.  This concept would compliment an
algerbra-based magic system nicely (IMHO), as mages would have a means of
sharing/selling the tricks of their trade.  A library is also an ideal
place to store world-maps (that is if you don't have gas stations) giving
new characters a feel for the size of your world.

Provide interactive objects/mobiles (c.f. the Newbie Sword discussion
here) that give players little helpful hints as to how to survive and
prosper in the gameworld.  One example I've seen on a DIKU was a 'newbie
guide' mobile that wandered around Midgaard just spouting information
about what is in each room.  Kinda annoying after a while, but maybe it
could be tweaked with headphones to give players information...

> I would like to add the following to this little list:
> >   -- New players can immediately play the game.  They should not be
> restricted to a silly training area. Experience should give players
> the ability to affect the game.  Lack of experience should not keep
> them from playing it.
> 

The keyword here to me is 'silly'.  The mudworld on my mud is a very
dangerous place.  The first and foremost 'goal' of the game will be to
survive, and thriving will be but a byproduct of surviving greater and
greater dangers.  I've found that if you throw inexperienced players into
highly dangerous situations, the survival rate is non-existant.  New
players still play the game, but are exposed to much smaller (in an
absolute scale, not compared with the character's abilities) dangers.  I
wouldn't think twice about having an army of giants storm a town of
seasoned players, but to a newbie, such a raid would be an impossible
challenge without some devine rescue.  Now this rescue will typically
end in the player being dumped in some 'newbie zone' (but I would _never_
call it that!!!) during the duration of the giants' raids.

There are many times when newbies need to be sequestered frmo the 'real'
game, simply to prevent them from being slaughtered, and there are many
places none but the most seasoned players dare tread.  The trick is to
keep the new players thinking that they are in fact playing the real game,
and constantly surprise them as their horizons expand.  If the players
feel like they are being herded, they will be turned off, so give the new
players _something_ to do, but don't overload them too quickly.

Gunther