[MUD-Dev] MMORPGs & MUDs

[Matt Mihaly]

On Wed, 19 Dec 2001, Marc Bowden wrote:

> Essentially, players object to having to read. As odd as that
> sounds, the traffic pattern of the average new guest bears this
> out: if there's too much to read, or any sort of learning curve
> into the unfamiliar that might require reading, the guest will go
> somewhere else. You, as a game designer, pick the level of
> compromise there that you're comfortable with.

That's not really universally true. Achaea is one of the bigger text
MUDs out there, despite being commercial and fairly expensive, and
it has a pretty steep learning curve. Quite steep really,
particularly if you're used to the standard codebases, as not only
are most of our commands different, but things like combat work in
fundamentally different ways, and the focus of the world itself is
on group vs. group and PvP rather than PvE.

This, combined with the potential cost (keeping in mind that you
never have to buy anything, and can get pretty much anything for
free if you're willing to work long enough for it) no doubt drives
off a lot of newbies, but on the other hand, the players we do get
tend to be pretty fanatical, and, I dare say, slightly more mature
than the average MUD playerbase.

The way I look at it is that if you're not willing to read, and not
willing to learn, you're not the sort of person that deserves to be
in our world, so sod off. (that's the generic 'you', not actually
you, Marc.)

--matt



 

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev