[MUD-Dev] The Player Wimping Guidebook

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Tue, 1 Aug 2000, Nathan Clemons wrote:

<my outrage at the idea of wiping your player base is snipped>


> The other thing that Tenarius seems to have forgotten is that certain MUDs
> also stay in beta for more than years. During beta, any and all changes
> shall/will/must occur. The very foundation of the system is fluctuating.

Shrug, we have been up for 3 years (which granted is not a huge amount of
time) and were in what I'd call Alpha when we first went up, and we've
never had any reason to do a player wipe.

 
> During these periods of prolonged betas, after which several necessary
> "nerfs" have been made due to new systems being implemented, the old
> players have "had it easy" under the old system but have been able to grow
> with the new system... getting the advantages of both worlds. New players
> will never be able to come close to rivalling them. Under these
> conditions, when the situation gets to be tense, the wipe is needed.

I'm not sure I follow here. Why will new players never be able to come
close to rivalling them? Again, we've made huge changes since we went up
and never saw a reason to wipe people. (Of course now the only guarantee
I'll make to players is that there will never, ever, under any
circumstances, be a wipe.)

> I do agree that the "balance by enhancing" principle is a good and viable
> one. I plan on having many classes, and this will be the method I
> use. However, the problem with this as most of us know is that the amount
> of coder time is almost always the most limited. Thus the coders may put
> in something for one class but it takes them a while to get the next thing
> in for the next class... during which there is always the "envious
> bitching" that occurs. ("But Stormy, thieves just got 'create
> poison'.... when are us warriors going to get anything? We suck compared
> to them.... waaaaaah...")

We get that all the time. Wiping the player base because one segment of it
is unhappy is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

 
> Another reason for wiping is for those on a themed MUD. For instance, the
> Wheel of Time series. I have seen wipes occur several times on these, and
> they serve two purposes: letting the RP reset (allowing players to truly
> RP out 'The Final Battle') and also introducing major code changes as
> well.

This I can accept as a valid reason. I'd never do it, as Achaea can
progress forever (due to the fact that we're not tied into following a
pre-existing storyline), but I can see why you would in that situation.
I'm just surprised the players don't tell you to f*ck off and leave. I
certainly would.

 
--matt




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