[MUD-Dev] Game Balance and Mortal Complaints

[Patrick Dughi]

On Fri, 8 Sep 2000 SmokEater952 at aol.com wrote:
> 
> I am a IMM on a mud that is about six (6) years old now. Over the course of 
> time it has be plagued with imm's that built without regard to game balance. 
> We now have a few imm's that want to change this and have worked hard and 
> long to make the changes to bring the game back into balance so that we can 
> move the game forward again.  This has brought much criticism from the 
> MORT's. I am afraid we may lost some of our clients, players, because of 
> these changes. The game went from being a cake walk to being difficult once 
> again. 
> 
> I guess I am looking for ways to handle the PR aspect of these sort of 
> changes, or the question of should they have been made at all. Should we have 
> left it alone and just made sure that all new adds where balanced? I find 
> myself in a tight spot as I am in charge of both RP and LAW. Not a good combo 
> to have I guess. Or am I just to worried about what the MORT's think and 
> should me thoughts be more on making sure that we have a world that is 
> balanced?
> 
	My take on this is somewhat biased - both because I've had to deal
with this as an administrator and programmer, and because I will not stick
with a game as a player unless it has a better than average chance to
'beat' me. In the end, this means that if I wrote a game for me, it'd be
pretty damn hard. 

	In the end, this manifests itself as having very little sympathy
with or few comprimises in situations which were off balance and set
aright.  It encourages the well-deserved notion that the majority of
players are not unlike 2-year old children.  They will cry and scream at
any stimuli, regardless of the stimuli, and the negativity only affects
how long they hollar.  The trick is that if you consistently give in, it
simply promotes the idea that whining and crying will always get you what
you want.  I'm dealing with this with my 8 week puppy who is breaking the
habit of whining when left alone.

You try sleeping with a dog in the bed who hasn't learned bladder control.
			
	That said, I think if you decide that changes need to be made,
that you should be inflexible about every issue you alter.  If you say
something is to be different, make it so.  If you want to soften the blow,
post well in advance, and change it incrementally if possible.

	I don't recommend bribes.  If you give a person a couple of levels
because you're reducing the effectivness of their skills/weapons/etc,
you're putting them right back at the same level of ability they were
previously at.  Your purpose in balancing down is to lower the average,
not use new terms to define it in the same way.

	The one thing you should ask yourself though, is if you need to
change it.  If you made the mud for people, and your goal is player
retention, making it easy will attract the largest groups apparently.  If
you make it more difficult, it will attract a smaller group, though they
may be more loyal.  Of course, if you made the mud more because you had in
your mind what _YOU_ wanted a mud to be, then player concerns should be
secondary.  

	I know alot of mud admins who've made the unconscious transition
from 'This is my mud' to 'This is my players mud', and they're terribly
unhappy at the feeling of powerlessness and lack of control.  They go away
in short order though, as most end up being a tech-support type person and
get fed up bowing and scraping to each user's wish.

	Of course, I've heard on this list of apparently player-owned,
admin-maintained muds.  That's cool.  Maybe it's not the way I'd go, but
that doesn't make it less valid.  If you want to let other people
determine how your system should run, then go with popular opinion.  The
ones who want a challenge are a small subset, and they won't make much of
an impact on the population.

	Remember, no matter how much a system changes, people who liked
even a small part of the original will find something to cling to in the
new version.  Even if it's just the name and company of others.

	(As a roleplay admin, I suspect that many of the changes won't
affect that role at all - code/stat changes that is..)

							PjD




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