[MUD-Dev] Advancement considered harmful (long)

[J C Lawrence]

On Sat, 27 May 2000 22:56:39 -0700 
Zak Jarvis <zak at voidmonster.com> wrote:

> I think the most important aspect here is the assumption that it's
> bad for players to burn out on your game.

> I would argue that is not the case at all.

> My feeling is that player burnout is completely inevitable. It's a
> fundamental aspect of online games. Players continually discover
> that the experience of playing never lives up to the expectation
> that *this* game, really and truly will be a satisfying alternate
> world. Unfortunately, no matter how well realized, *no* world can
> remain satisfying forever.

> What I personally hope to do is manage the players expectations,
> and let them burn out with grace when the time comes.

The counter assumption is that by letting players create and define
their own games via community you change both the players
themselves, and their view of your game.  The goal is that the
players sufficiently create and involve themselves in their social
meta-game that it in itself becomes ideally tailored to them, and
evolves with them over time.

The problem with this assumption is that it requires significant
time investments from the players to reach that level.  Some players
have the idea that they need to "have a life" outside of their
games.  You are always going to have a large percentage of players
who drop in for a quick thrill, and then disappear again without
either participating fully in the game, or having any sense of
shared investment with the other players.

Its the hobo problem.  

--
J C Lawrence                                 Home: claw at kanga.nu
----------(*)                              Other: coder at kanga.nu
--=| A man is as sane as he is dangerous to his environment |=--


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