[MUD-Dev] Acting casual about casual gamers

[Erik Jarvi]

On Wed, Jun 28, 2000 at 10:25:40PM -0400, Charles Hughes wrote:
> On Wednesday, June 28, 2000 7:29 PM, Michael Tresca [SMTP:talien at toast.net] 
> wrote:
> > Game designers who cater to this mindset give players demeaning tasks.
> > Newbies, who are really only new players, are transformed into children.
> > They are given simple tasks, they are told to kill "easy things" like
> > chickens, cows, and butterflies.  Everything they do is made out to be
> > insignificant, weak, and ultimately, a little ridiculous if you consider
> > the context of a heroic fantasy (or heroic whatever) game.  Not a lot of
> > heroism to go around when new players start the game.  Worse, 
> large-volume
> > level-based systems compensate for the belief that first level is bad by
> > making new players fourth, fifth, or higher level (like Dark Sun did).
> >
> > I submit that new players should NOT be treated this way.  New players
> > should kill dragons, battle fierce demons, perform heroic quests, and
> > they should be able to do it all at first level.
> > So what if the dragon dies in five blows instead of 30?  If the player
> > can't see the statistics of the dragon, and if he or she is new, that
> > person will feel just as much of an achievement.
> 
> My wife likes to read books by reading the first chapter, then the last
> chapter, and then maybe everything else.  She also likes to be told what's
> going to happen in movies.  Personally, this drives me nuts, and I swear
> that it ruins the experience for her.  I could be wrong, but I don't think
> so.  Anyway, letting a new player (not an old player, starting a new
> character) be able to hunt and kill dragons seems to smack of reading
> the last chapter of a book to me.
> 

IMO, Legends of Kesmai had a great base for a game. Most newbies were fighters,
and to become a knight you had to kill Daisy. Daisy was this red dragon at the 
bottom of a dungeon. She was *tough* for a ~6th level fighter. You could not
solo her at this level.  What would usually happen is you meet/ask a few people to
help you kill Daisy. They beat her to a inch of her miserable life, then back off.
You would rush in, if you weren't already, and land the killing blow. Now that was
capital F fun. My first several Daisy kills were exhilarating! I soloed her a few 
times but it paled in comparison.

Ok so you weren't exactly a newbie, but close enough.  You could get enough levels
to survive a Daisy hunt in a day or two.

You need this kind of early dragon to your newbie players.  Daisy wasn't Mama.

Has anyone thought of implementing a type of an AG (Advanced Game) ala IOK?
Basicly AG was a one way trip to a MUCH tougher game. (I never got that far tho.)

Wishlist: Kesmai open sourcing IOK.

Erik
--
All music aspires to the condition of muzak.



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