[MUD-Dev] Bay Area Press re: UO, the good the bad and the Ugly.

[adam at treyarch.com]

On Sun, 4 Jun 2000, Jessica Mulligan wrote:
> I have yet to meet a designer that wasn't in the top 20% category above.
> Most of us are in the top 5% category.  I suspect one reason we keep
> designing these games the way we do, is that they are therapy for US, who
> are so like the hard core players.
> 
> If that is true, is it any wonder that the MMPOGs we design continually tend
> to appeal quite heavily to 20% of the players?

My story is similar but slightly different.  I was once in the heaviest
time-investment category (the 5% you refer to above).  Nowadays I have
enough other things in my life that take priority over on-line gaming that
I can no longer do that.  (One of the things that takes priority is work
on my own game.)

As a result, I have ended up designing my mud to require a much smaller
time investment, for one simple reason: I want to play my own game, and do.
A couple hours a week for 3 weeks is more than sufficient for me to have
a character enough "power" (so to speak) that I can get into groups with
other top-level characters and go tackle the most difficult gameplay.

Of course, there's a side effect: when people who *do* have plenty of spare
time to spend on the game start playing seriously, the frequently exhaust
the limits of a certain character type within a week or two of playing 12+
hours a day.  Which is fine, but it does mean that most of the "best"
players I've had are only around for a month or two, until they've exhausted
most of the major character types.

Adam





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