[MUD-Dev] characters per account

[Timothy Dang]

On Tue, 4 Apr 2000, Brian Green wrote:

> You also propose that multiple accounts reduces the value of each
> account, so it makes sense for players to not want multiple accounts
> because it dilutes the real value.  This is obviously false, as anyone
> familiar with the "tragedy of the commons" knows.

I think his argument (or at least someone's argument at some point in the
discussion) was a bit different than your interpretation. You're right
that the tragedy of the commons could be a good way to think about the
problem, assuming that multiplaying does detract in some way from the game
experience.

But I think the argument was more along the lines of: "If we can do a
better job of preventing multiplaying, we can attract players who will
appreciate the better environment that will result." This was an argument
against: "If you tell people they get 1 character for $X, and a competing
product gives them 10 characters for $X, they'll choose the comppetition."
The former is kinda like advertising that your game won't have a tragedy
of the commons problem.

I take no stance on whether this is true, but I have been interested in
the discussion. I would very much like to see games which have one
character per player. I'm wondering if there's a middle ground in the
discussion, the posts mostly tend to be: "We could try this to prevent
multiplaying"; "Won't work, nothing will work, someone will always
multiplay."

I'm sure there's no way to absolutely prevent multiplaying, but I'd find
suggestions on how to reduce it without destroying the appeal of a game
very useful.

------------------------------
Timothy O'Neill Dang / Cretog8
520-321-4015
One monkey don't stop no show.




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