[MUD-Dev] Re: pet peeves

[Wes Connell]

On Fri, 12 Feb 1999, Adam Wiggins wrote:

[good money discussion snipped]

> > I mean, aren't we all basically agreed that level as a measure of player
> > quality is pretty worthless? If not, why? What does having level X really
> > say about the player behind the character? What do we expect it to say? What
> > do we wish it would say?
> 
> It says that they've played the game long enough to progress to that level.
> Now, there is that phenomenon known as "high-level newbies", that is, people
> that got to their level without actually learning the game due to get
> dragged around by someone high level for long enough to gain lots of
> experience, so it's not an absolute yardstick.  But it is a good first-pass
> indicator.

I would think that a mud that would allow for the "high-level
newbies" phenomenon to occur should have its (the mud) questioned. If the
code allows for grouping and what not it should base the gains around the
group interaction and teamwork. While this is not easy to accomplish, it
is one of the many things that makes the quality mud differ from the
cheese-ball muds. Err..rambling. Point being, for a mud to be worthwhile
it should somewhat "force" the newbie players to learn the mud as their
characters progress. Thus by the time any character played by a newbie
finally reaches the high levels the player would have put forth enough
time and effort.   

Wes!
wconnell at eden.com
I get up each morning, gather my wits.
Pick up the paper, read the obits.
If I'm not there I know I'm not dead.
So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed.

Oh, how do I know my youth is all spent?
My get-up-and-go has got-up-and-went.
But in spite of it all, I'm able to grin,
And think of the places my get-up has been.
		-- Pete Seeger