[MUD-Dev] MUD Schools

[Michael Tresca]

Ben Chambers posted on Monday, February 19, 2001 11:08 PM

> In the new generation of MUD players, MUD schools seem to be sort of
> a mythical area.  Everyone knows what they were SUPPOSED to do, but
> I ask you, did they do this, or were they simply there as an excuse.

I think the entire concept of a newbie school is simply a (sometimes
unintentional) form of meta-gaming -- we recognize you're a new
player, so we're going to make a "new player training school" and put
it in the game.

Then, coding staff gripes that the game's not taken seriously.  Well
gee, it's probably got something to do with 1) you're treating people
like they're young (regardless of whether they are or aren't
physically young), 2) the very name implies you must be taught and in
order to do so must go to a SCHOOL.

I've come to play a new game and you're sending me to SCHOOL?

Microsoft had it right:

  Step #1: Have a damned good help system.

  Step #2: Do everything you can to get new players to read that help
  system.  On RetroMUD we use a similar concept to Clippit (who is
  just an interface to the help files) -- we have chatty little
  guides, who travel with the newbie.  They tell the newbie about
  areas appropriate to them, provide them with means to overcome the
  game's challenges, etc.  But the newbie is IN the game.

  Step #3: Code into the game parameters to deal with new players.
  Introduce concepts slowly, but they should be playing in the same
  universe as everyone else.  Otherwise they're playing the "newbie
  school" as a game within the game, and it's probably not a
  particularly good representation of the game either.

  Step #4: Player support -- a newbie channel, newbie helpers, etc.

  Step #5: Attitude adjustment -- don't treat your newbies like kids.
  This just reinforces that new players are weak, and by virtue of
  their weakness, they suck.  Which helps foster an environment of
  more powerful players who look down their noses at newbies.

The best MUD Schools are not MUD schools at all, but part of the game
experience that help new players get assimilated into the game, both
socially to the player base and personally accustomed to the game's
rules and regulations.  The worst MUD schools are patches to game
systems with poor documentation that really exist to reinforce why you
don't want to be a new player -- which turns off casual players at a
critical time when they're deciding whether or not they want to play
your game.

Mike "Talien" Tresca
RetroMUD Administrator
http://www.retromud.org

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