[MUD-Dev] Fun and Learning in games

[Schubert]

-----Original Message-----
From: Draymoor [mailto:fibhufky at erols.com]

>Ok, I've been thinking about what makes games fun for me. Specificly, Real
>Time Strategy games, but this applies everywhere I think. Anyway, the
>Conclusion I came up with is that actually learning to play the game is
what
>presents the greatest fun for me. I was wondering if perhaps this is true
in
>other people?

According to Bartle, this is true for a lot of people - it defines the 
'Explorer' character type to a T.  I'm certainly one of them - games tend
to keep my interest as long as there is emergent strategy and tactics to 
acquire.  Once I feel like there is nothing new to learn, I will quit.

>If so, then perhaps one design element that hasn't been addressed in many
>games is an unending learning curve, so there is always something new about
>the game dynamics to learn.

Yep.  In order to do this, you essentially need to have fewer purely 
linear systems, and more systems that interact with each other.  MUDs
and MMPRPGs can profit from this, since the strategies are emergent - 
as a new fighting style emerges, players are forced to find a new tactic
to combat that.  A MUD designed with this behavior in mind could 
probably do quite well.

--damion



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