[MUD-Dev] Birthday Cake (or Why Large Scale Sometimes Sucks) (long)

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Thu, 8 Jun 2000, J C Lawrence wrote:

> On Thu, 8 Jun 2000 09:32:25 -0400 
> Dave Rickey <daver at mythicgames.com> wrote:
> 
> What was the last truly multi-player game you played?  What was it
> about that game such that being multi-player wasn't just integral to
> the system, but that the system itself was unable to exist, let
> alone function without it being multi-player?  

I've harped on this for years. To me, most MUDs are only semi-multiplayer.
they pit you against the game, just like a single-player game does. You go
out, you bash monsters, you go up levels. Doesn't require that anyone else
is around. Sure, maybe your system makes it impractical to go out and play
against the game unless you are in a group, but that's still playing
against the game. 

 
> What exactly constitutes a multiplayer game?  

Off the top of my head, a game where the major conflict and action is PvP
(and no, I do not at all equate PvP with combat). Politics, wars, combat,
pitting players against other players, or groups of players against groups
of players. The essay I wrote for Gamasutra went into this in some detail:
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000309/mihaly_01.htm. A game that is
oriented on gaining levels by bashing monsters is just a one-player game
with a bunch of people running around playing it simultaneously. (I
haven't thought all that much about this, so be gentle.)

--matt




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