[MUD-Dev] Spawning and quests (was Sony ban)

[Schubert]

-----Original Message-----
From: Geoffrey Z. [mailto:gzatkin at verant.com]

>    It will be interesting to see what happens when the expansion goes
live,
>and we expand the size of the world. See if spreading people out will
>alleviate this - or see if people want to be spread out. Surprisingly, a
lot
>of people seem to like the "safe" environment that massive amounts of
people
>in the dungeon provide. Nothing like being able to yell for help and
getting
>rescued.

If history is any indication, the popularity of the new lands will be a 
function of convenience vs reward.  Convenience is, fundamentally, a
description
of how easy it is to get to and from your 'home' (home = where your friends
are).
I was surprised in Meridian at how hard it was to get any group of players
to
relocate their 'home' to the city in the expansion area, despite the fact
that 
the expansion area was vastly more rewarding.  It takes a certain critical 
mass to get players to relocate their home.  As a result, expansion tends to
be somewhat limited to quick excursions.

You can see evidence of this in EQ as it stands now..  When I played it, I 
was surprised to see people fighting over the hunting rights of a dervish 
camp - sometimes 3 to 4 groups - in the main Desert, while a mere zone 
away, 3 nearly identical dervish camps went almost untouched.  The 
power of convenience.

RoK should do better than Meridian's expansion because of the homeland it 
provides for the lizardmen.  

--Damion



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