[MUD-Dev] what players want, what I want

[Ilya]

Several recent statements in MUD-Dev messages
have drawn me to an interesting thought or two.

Greg Miller who wrote: "Roleplay has no benefits
normally for people who don't enjoy it, and few
seem to enjoy it."  I refer specifically to the
last clause "few seem to enjoy [roleplaying]."

In another, I believe it was Matthew Mihaly who
discussed realism, playability, and how he had
never met a player who had complained about
inconsistencies in room descriptions (e.g. "But
_why_ can't I take the candlestick?  It says
it's right here!").  This was in response to my
extolling the virtues of reducing inconsistencies
whenever possible, and using consistency and 
realism as desirable means to do so.

In both of these cases our writers appear to be
speaking from experience, both their own, from
playing, and the experience of others they know.

My experience has been vastly different from both
of theirs.  I have met many who prefer and enjoy
roleplaying, and many who have asked just such a
question as I made up above, and for whom incon-
sistencies are a problem (and removing those
inconsistencies is a big plus).

No doubt it is pointless to try to determine
precisely how many of these kinds of players
there are, or who has a more accurate gauge of
the playing populace, etc.  But this is not my
point anyhow.

My point is, I suppose, at least partly obvious,
and two-pronged:

(1) it's awfully tempting to extrapolate based on
    experience sets based substantially on groups
    and the larger the groups the better (groups
    whose memberships are likely influenced by
    factors described in point 2); and

(2) we _tend_ to meet others like ourselves, or
    get to know others much better who are more
    like ourselves.

For the two MUD-Dev'ers I have cited above and
myself: our sample sizes may be large, but they
do seem unusually disjoint -- how could we
possibly be describing the same population, or
even portions of the same greater population?

My two points above are the only guesses I have
to date.

--
  Ilya, Game Commandos     http://www.gamecommandos.com     





_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev maillist  -  MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev