[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs

[Dr. Cat]

I don't even need to quote the message, my reaction to this was generated
mainly by just seeing the tacit assumption in the message title.  (Upon
reading the first message and one reply to it I feel my reaction was
accurate - but then I already knew that from years of monitoring the
list.)

   Re: Why Socializers are our Comrades (long) (Sam Axon)

This translates in my mind to "Gosh, the Mud-Dev list people are so
combat-mud-centric that they don't even normally think about the other
kinds of 'muds' when discussing how 'muds' should best do this or that."

But I knew that already.

The dominance of combat-oriented muds is a temporary phenomenon, caused
largely by the fact that the small minority of the human population that
hardcore gaming geeks represent (a group I'm a member of, by the way) are
much more willing to do hard work early on to make something like a mud
possible.  When the masses are using online environments, character
advancement and killing monsters will be a fringe genre, with most people
using muds for socializing.  Most of them *gasp* not even roleplaying,
just pretending to be "myself talking to my friends through the computer".
Or at most "myself in a funny space-alien costume, ha ha."

At that point, some mainstream mud developers might discuss "Why
Combat-mud players are our Comrades".  I certainly think it's worth
considering, when building a get-the-most-players-possible mud,
whether you should allow combat-type play in there at all but make
sure it's segregated and won't both most players...  Or just not have
it anywhere to avoid attracting a crowd that will be too disruptive
to the socializers.  We're going mostly towards "no combat" in Furcadia.

Numbers for the latest reality check - a recent article I saw (don't
remember the source, so feel free to consider the numbers as questionable
as you like) said there were one million hardcore gamers on the Internet,
and thirty million casual gamers.

The question in my mind isn't how to work socializers in, but rather how
to make a place that caters primarily to socializers - the majorit of
humans.

Standard disclaimer applies, many mud developers don't have "get as many
players as possible" as one of their goals, in which case the above may
not be relevant to them.

*-------------------------------------------**-----------------------------* 
   Dr. Cat / Dragon's Eye Productions       ||       Free alpha test:
*-------------------------------------------**   http://www.furcadia.com
    Furcadia - a graphic mud for PCs!       ||  Let your imagination soar!
*-------------------------------------------**-----------------------------*



_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev