[MUD-Dev] The Player Wimping Guidebook

[Koster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu 
> [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf Of
> Matthew Mihaly
> Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2000 12:45 AM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: RE: [MUD-Dev] The Player Wimping Guidebook
> 
> 
> On Tue, 1 Aug 2000, Raph Koster wrote:
> 
> > Matt Mihaly's horror at the notion of a playerwipe and 
> Tenarius' horror at
> > the nerfing of a sword are merely a matter of degree. Both 
> are about a sense
> > of accomplishment being removed. To be nitpicky over whether a small
> > housefire or a big one are worse is silly--either one can 
> claim something
> > valuable.
> 
> Well, let's be honest here Raph, you CAN get away with nerfing spell X in
> UO. You could _not_ get away with doing a player wipe.

Often, we (meaning those of us on the larger commercial muds) have "not
gotten away" with it in that a substantial number of people quit as a result
of the nerf. Anything that causes the playerbase to shrink as opposed to
grow, is frankly, unusual and therefore to be feared (the MMORPGs seem to
have always-rising player numbers currently). So we'd rate that as "not
getting away with it."

In any case, my point was better expressed by another poster. It's all about
the emotional investment. Either way, we are talking about removing
something players are emotionally invested in. So we're arguing about how
much we can hurt someone's feelings before they quit. The answer will vary
by player. The better answer is where the average breaking point lies for
your playerbase.

-Raph



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