[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun

[J C Lawrence]

On Thu, 2 Jul 1998 14:43:45 -0500  
Koster, Raph<rkoster at origin.ea.com> wrote:

>> From: Mike Sellers [SMTP:mike at bignetwork.com] 

>> No, freedom is not a myth!  In fact, I would say that the single
>> biggest reason why people are dissatisfied with UO today (or M59
>> last year) is because these games unexpectedly constrain their
>> freedom at every turn.  More pointedly, these games *advertise*
>> freedom and then don't provide it -- many players *can't* do the
>> things they really want because either the game or other players
>> constrain them from doing so.

> In fact, a question I'd ask is whether the increased freedoms that
> have come over time in certain mud designs have increased the
> dissatisfaction... in other words, seeing a line of evolution from
> MUDI to Aber to Diku to M59 and UO, all gaming-oriented environments
> in many ways, we do see an increased freedom in the feature set,
> more ability for players to act freely. Does the fact that they have
> more freedom make players more sensitive when a particular freedom
> turns out not to be supported by the code base?

Bingo.  Given a limited set of mechanics (and Shades is a perfect
example here with is extremely primitive command and mechanic set, and
incredible playability) there are few permutations and little to no
expectation of depth.  Start adding depth and the number of mechanical
permutations (n!) grows much faster than the actual depth (n**2(??)).

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                               Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------(*)                     Internet: claw at under.engr.sgi.com
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...