[MUD-Dev] Affecting the world

[Marian Griffith]

On Wed 17 Sep, Adam Wiggins wrote:
> [Jon L:]
> > The majority of existing muds allow one to succeed/win/maxout/havefun 
> > without any imperative need for player cooperation.  There also exist 

> I know it may be a bad word on this list, but don't forget about the
> dikus!  This is a fundamental problem I've always had with LPs - cooperation
> is not only not necessary, but it's often frowned upon.  On any diku worth
> its beans, 'soloing' is usually pretty unproductive, and in many cases there
> are puzzles, quests, and fights that you just can't get past without large
> groups of people.  (See my previous post about moving the rock...)
> On some of the bigger ones, the group leader practically becomes the
> general of a small army.  A good leader is highly useful for any size
> group, but once you get over twenty or thirty members, it will disintegrate
> into chaos without a well-organized, knowledgable, patient leader...

*smile*  This is also the moment that -I- think the game gains enormously
in appeal. Especially if rushing monsters by sheer mass of players is not
going to be particularly usefull.  At this point the group, and the main-
tenance of it, become more important than the individual player. The game
at the same moment gets a different social dimension,  without losing its
focus on combat.

> The approach we (that is, Orion and I) are using is simply to make the players
> be small components in a very large world.  Although I don't think a 'solo'
> player would necessarily be bored, they'd find that they have a hard time
> having much of an influence over the world, or achieving major goals.
> This is drawing on the same principle illustrated above, except even more so.

Great!

Marian 
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey