[MUD-Dev] Ten commandments for the next MMORPG

[David Wruck]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Raph Koster" <rkoster at verant.com>
To: "MUD-DEV" <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2000 4:27 AM
Subject: [MUD-Dev] Ten commandments for the next MMORPG


>>#1: Thou Shalt Not Require Vulnerability to Other Players.

Actually, I could not disagree more. Oh, I am not talking about rampant
newbie slayings,
but I do remember playing hours and hours of MUME in the early 90's and
having several
heart stopping moments where named players from the evil side were trashing
on the players
from the good side. I remember defending cities from invasion, and the
thrill of sending
retribution partys against the foolish darkie raiders..

I also remember the first time I took down a player-controlled orc, and the
thrill of catching a
named orc wounded and fleeing who was suddenly at the mercy of some 20
players who were
complaining they had nothing to do...

I think PVP has it's place, but there has to be SOME protection for the new
players against the
rampant slayings of the higher-level chars.

>>#2: Honor Thy Customers and Consider Their Suggestions, for Thy Game is
>>**Not** Holy.

Ummmm, ok perhaps not to the players, but to the designers, coders, and
archetects
that pour thousands of man hours into a game, yes, there is an element of
personal
pride to be considered. If I spend 3 weeks crafting this intricate and
compelling quest
only to see that somehow a problem in it allows the players to deliver a
rather simple
item to one NPC to cause the quest to complete, and the player somehow skips
over
the txt of the quest, then I am going to feel a bit put off by this.

Even moreso if a piece of the world that 6 people craft over the course of 2
months
is trashed by the players that they don't like it, my first reaction would
be on the lines
of "Who in the hell does he think HE is????"

>>#3: Thou Shalt Use All Means at Thy Disposal to Communicate With Thy
>>Customers

This I cannot agree with more. One of the major fallacies is that we are
told
constantly that something will happen (come on, I thin you all know the
phrase
by now..) " shortly". No, a time estimate should be given. "The servers are
down,
we expect them to be back online by 12:45 EST, assuming no further technical
problems ensue." Rather than a rather distressing "One of the servers is
down. If
you are affected, we will be getting back to you shorty." I saw this message
on the
login server for almost 12 hours. In my book, there is NOTHING short with 12
hours.

>>#4: Thou Shalt Not Lie To Thy Customers - And None of that Misrepresenting
>>the Truth Stuff, Either

Ick, Personally I think that Marketing people should be shot, but then
again, I
am certian that shooting someone without a soul, only causes them to rise in
power and infamy.. Seriously, every attempt should be made to make truthful
statements, and should something change, and a previous statement made
partially
or wholly incorrect should be explained to the playerbase.

>>#5: Thou Shalt Test Thy Product Before Thy Releaseth It or Any Part of It

There are several things to keep in mind. Verant indiactes that only 40% of
the current quests in EQ have even been discovered, and that a TON of them
simply lie undone. The question is, are they broken, removed, or inoperable,
or
have you so cleverly hidden them that 2,000 people on each server somehow
miss them? Seems to me that in that case, the quest is too damn hard.

>>#6: Thou Shalt Remember That This is a Game, and is Supposed to be Fun

Actually, this should be directed at the players, not the developers. I
think
that playing around with Linux kernel software is fun. Most people don't..
Am
I going to add this into a game? I seriously doubt it, as there is no chance
that
I will attract thousands of people to this kind of game.

Will I look into the market and figure out exactly what people find fun
about the
other game systems, and *ahem* inherit some of the ideas? You betcha. That
is known as market research.

>>#7: What Thou Expecteth Players to Have, Players Should Expect to Obtain

I expect players to have exactly what they are capable of getting, no more.
If I am running around in cloth armor carrying a bent and rusty mace as my
only weapon and I *MAKE* 25th level, that's damned impressive....

>>#8: Problems, Not Puzzles

Oh yes, the cardinal sin currently of the MMORPGs right now, quests.
"Ok, Kill Bob, bring me his knife. I'll give you a note, take this to Phred
Now, he'll try to kill you, and when he does, kill him. Then take the note
and his ring to Jane who will tell you who else to kill. Bring me that
person's
head and a gem worth the price of a small country back here to the Temple
of Life and give them to the head Cleric Alice."

I'd rather see creative puzzles, hints dropped by trainers, and other NPCs
to non-linear quests. IE the Holiest of all Holy Weapons ALSO happens
to have the final component of the Unholiest of all Unholy Weapons. It
only makes sense really.... So that both the Paladins and the Anit-Paladins
are running the same quest, but only one can win...

>>#9: If Thou Must Have Classes, Balance Them in *Quantifiable* Ways

Well, not to say I don't think some of the classes got shafted in one game
or another
(because it certianlly feels that way to me as a player). I can see why
people would
design one game system to favor one or more classes leaving the rest feeling
a bit
left out. But to have it drilled into you time and time again that the class
you love to
play or the race you enjoy playing is made so hard as to be almost
unplayable....
Well then SOMETHING has to be done about that.
 .
>>#10: If Thou Must Have [Whatever], Have [Whatever].

It's a valid thought. If you are going to have the ability of a player to
eventually
create a computer, have a POINT to it. In EQ Tinkering is a great thing, and
I
actually own several tinkered items. But mainly only for the fun of having
them,
they are mostly worthless.

If you have a skill, or item (lockpicking comes to mind...) make it a VIABLE
skill.
I have talked to LOTS of thief players who bemoan the lockpicking situation
in
many or the MUDs or other games. They love the class, but in order to make
them
truely viable, the other classes complain they can't play in X area without
a thief class.

My initial answer: "Oh well, get a thief." After several hundred similar
requests?
I'll litter keys all over the land for people to find, thus effectivly
causing a much smaller
portion of the population to complain....

Keep in mind these are my ideas and are mainly just an innane series of
ramblings
that have more or less been hammered into coheasive thoughts.

PS: I know my grammer, and spelling suck. :)

David Wruck




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