[MUD-Dev] UO rants

[Vincent Archer]

According to John Buehler:
> Because the persistent game advances the character, the character ends up
> being the summation, the embodiment, of the player's time.  Obviously, the
> player skill in managing the character advances, but the majority of skill
> tends to be built up in the character.  It is this difference that I was
> attempting to underscore: time investment in the persistent game goes into
> the character, while time investment in a game like Quake goes into the
> player's skills.  Because the character's skills are fixed.

And that is really the main difference between those kind of games.
This is why, in Quake, death means very very little : because death
does not substract from the player's talent, since most of that talent
lies in the player himself, not his avatar (I prefer this term when we
go outside of the RPG genre; character is a RPG thing).

Thing is, if you're looking at large scale games (i.e. games with thousand
of players, all the way up to MMOG), there's a lesson to be learned. Most
players suck. They aren't smart, they're NOT getting smarter, and they
make you cringe everytime you see another 'nit'.

Three solutions there:
- Select against the dumb; not really viable if you want it to be a
  commercial or large-scale venture.
- Give them the impression they can stand on their own in the game
  regardless of their skills (the Quake way)
- Put enough advantages over time in the avatars that they still get the
  idea they have become better (the RPG way)

> No slam was intended against Quake players or the community that they
> enjoy.

That's another difference between the two kind of games. You can play
Quake and NOT be a part of any community. You can't play a MOG/MUD for
any lenght of time and not be part of the community.

--
	Vincent Archer			Email:	archer at frmug.org

All men are mortal.  Socrates was mortal.  Therefore, all men are Socrates.
							(Woody Allen)



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