[MUD-Dev] The Player Wimping Guidebook

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Thu, 3 Aug 2000, Koster, Raph wrote:

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu 
> > [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf Of
> > Matthew Mihaly
> > Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2000 1:15 AM
> > To: 'mud-dev at kanga.nu'
> > Subject: RE: [MUD-Dev] The Player Wimping Guidebook
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Well, putting it that objectively (and I agree), it then 
> > behooves you to
> > make your game as addictive as possible so that the average breaking
> > point is raised. (Bandwidth issues aside of course.)
> 
> It also behooves you to make the changes you make not cause net reductions
> in playerbase, unless you don't care about playerbase. But by and large for
> most mud admins, it's a decent metric. From the perspective of trying to
> keep players happy, they (in the aggregate, examined as player statistics)
> know what a good change is better than you do.

Yes, I agree with that. The player-base as an aggregate knows what a good
change is much better than you do.

 
> An example--often I've seen changes made to the MMORPGs that were loudly and
> publicly decried and resulted in a flood of threatened departures. But the
> playerbase (and acquisition rate) rose. The playerbase knows what a good
> change (or a smooth one, at least) is, even if invididual players do not. 

Quite true. I hear all the time from certain players how "Achaea is dying"
and "Everyone is leaving" although our playerbase does nothing but
continue to grow. The squeaky wheel is definitely not indicative of the
playerbase as a whole.

Of course, you could institute a really poor change, and the player base
could grow from an influx of newbies who won't continue to play, while
your older, previously-loyal players (who are, at least in my case, way
more valuable than newbies) leave. 


--matt
"He that is wounded in the testicles, or have his penis cut off, shall not
enter into the congregation of the Lord." Deuteronomy 23:1




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