[MUD-Dev] Re: Family, was characters per account

[Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services]

Jeff Freeman wrote:
> They're wanting npc versions of their characters that will actually work
> for them - harvest resources, craft widgets, etc. - while they are
> off-line.  I can already see someone taking four warriors to a dungeon,
> logging out in guard-mode, logging in with a 5th warrior and just
> harvesting mobs for hours on end...
>

I see a number of issues here.  Where to begin?  Hmmm.  You never know what 
activity some gamers will really enjoy.  I recall a number of people posting to 
the Middle-Earth development board who really wanted to be a hobbit and farm 
pipeweed.  I think that would get boring after a while, but they insisted that 
it was essential to their enjoyment of the game.  I think that the real issue is 
that this activity would help them connect to the world that they imagine 
Middle-Earth to be.  They wanted to "live" in ME, and a ME without hobbits 
farming pipeweed just wasn't ME to them.  But if you include the option to farm 
pipeweed, others (who come to the game with a different attitude and different 
expectations) will expect pipeweed farming to be economically beneficial.  In 
fact, they will expect to benefit from it proportionately to the amount of 
effort they put into it.  They will not be able to connect to any kind of 
"purpose" for pipeweed farming that doesn't lead to some kind of benefit in 
"character development."  So some _enjoy_ an activity because of the atmoshere 
it creates and because it provides them with a context in which to form 
relationships, while others _use_ the activity only for the advancement of their 
character (and it is the advanced character that they enjoy, not the activity) 
because it is an achievment that makes them feel significant.  

This is nothing new.  We are all aware of the differences in RP and GoP 
playstyles.  However, I think that a _majority_ of players fall somewhere in 
between the extremes.  Many like to role play, but still hear the call to glory 
and feel the weight of shame.  But it seems that many MUDs are designed so that 
if you try to be both, you will be successful at neither.  If you don't jump on 
the "golden path" bandwagon, you will be left in the dust.  You will hear about 
all of the dangerous and exciting places in the world well before you are 
capable enough to journey there yourself.  This is especially true if you are 
not able to spend 80 hours per week in the game.  In fact, even if you are a 
hard-core GoP, but can only spend 20 hours per week in the game world, you will 
likely not be able to fully enjoy the game.  You might even feel cheated by 
those who can spend more time in the game.  (You'll probably accuse them of 
having no life to cover your own shame.)  IMHO, each character who spends time 
in the game "skilling" to avoid shame is a character who _could_ be adding to 
the atmosphere and relationships that can give our game worlds so much more 
depth, but who is instead likely detracting from that atmosphere and precluding 
for others the very possibility of suspended disbelief.
 
IMHO, a game should be about fighting dragons, but never about harvesting mobs.

I see character persistence as a way to address many of these problems.  With 
character persistence, you can set a _much_ slower rate of progression with a 
much higher degree of control.  What if you set it so that someone who does all 
of the right things takes six months to become fully proficient in a skill? (It 
would definitely take longer to discover a "golden path. :-) )  If it took six 
months of boring "skilling" during precious time spent in game to accomplish 
this, gamers would have every right to complain.  But since the gamer can 
"skill" while not in game, he is free to do in the game whatever he thinks is 
truly fun (or perhaps we are afraid that we really don't have any truly fun 
activities in our game?), so a development curve of six months is much easier to 
swallow.

To prevent harvesting mobs, you could try one or more of the following:

1) Don't have mobs. :-)  Let other players be the antagonists in your story.  
Evil vs. good; Orcs vs. humans; etc.
2) Use a less predictable system for spawning.  Spawn where they ain't.
3) Implement the possibility of permanent death in certain situations.  Gamers 
will be less likely to put their characters in a dangerous situation when they 
are not in complete control. 
4) Sell "practice dummies" or provide "trainers" for certain lower levels of 
skilling.
5) Design the game so that skilling is worthwhile for a limited period of time 
before it is necessary for some type of interaction or quest to convert the 
skill into a new ability.  Then that ability can be skilled for a while before 
qualifying for the next ability, etc. 


--Phinehas

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                Paul E. Schwanz, II          
                Email: paul.schwanz at east.sun.com
 
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