[MUD-Dev] Interesting EQ rant (very long quote)

[J C Lawrence]

On Fri, 23 Feb 2001 06:56:31 +0000 (GMT) 
the logos <the_logos at www.achaea.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 22 Feb 2001, J C Lawrence wrote:
>> On Fri, 23 Feb 2001 05:07:53 +0000 (GMT) the logos
>> <the_logos at www.achaea.com> wrote:
 
>>> Erm, other people are the _whole point_ of multiplayer games. If
>>> you want to pretend they don't exist, why not just play a
>>> one-player game instead?
 
>> Therea re many reasons to play multi-player games, several of
>> which don't actually enclude an inter-personal interaction.
>> Other players provide targets, skilled AI opponents, an
>> active/unprdictable environment filled with change and adaption,
>> etc.

> You have to interact with someone for them to be a target. 

While this is true is an absolute sense, it is not necessarily true
in a practical sense.

Consider the lowly Quake player:  

  His sole action is to log onto CTF games as a sniper, to occupy
  dark corners and to camp some location, silently fragging
  opponents with insta-kill head shots.  That's all he does.  He
  logs on, picks up a sniper rifle, camps, and picks other players
  off with single-shot kills.  He does this for stretches of hours.

They're actually fairly common on certain servers.  They never talk,
they never participate in clans, they don't actually *do* anything
except snipe.  Other players are just targets.

Technically this is interaction.  Practically they're not
interacting.

> As for things like an active/unpredictable environment, that's not
> inherent to multiplayer games.

True.  The point however is that a socially active environment is
oft considered more pleasant and interesting to be in even tho one
is not participating in those qualities.

Some people like sitting on park benches people watching or perhaps
reading.  They don't actually do anything as part of that more
general human activity in the park.  They simply enjoy the ambiance
of the social environment (especially the readers).  Why don't they
go read in a comfortable chair at home instead?  They like being
where other people are doing thigs, even tho they don't wish to
contribute to that at any depth greater than simply being present.

The same is true for MUDs.  The simple presence of other players, in
numbers, and in activity, makes the environment inherently more
interesting and more appealing, even tho that person/player never
actually has anything to do with them (perhaps they just stamp
collect or solo monster hunt).

>> There are a great many people who solo play in multi-player
>> games, but will only do that when other players are present in
>> numbers.  They don't want to participate in the multi-player
>> aspects, but they do want the second order benefits of having
>> other players active in the environment.

> I don't buy that. You're telling me that there are people who play
> MUDs who _never_ interact with other players?

Yup, for very small definitions of "never".  They might
occassionally trade an item with another player, or ask about a
puzzle or item location, which violates any absolute definition of
"never", but as a general course and practice, yes, they not only
exist, they exist in large numbers.  In many MUDs I've played they
formed over three quarters of the player base (for a game that
typically had 30+ plus people online in off-peak hours).

--
J C Lawrence                                       claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                          http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/
--=| A man is as sane as he is dangerous to his environment |=--
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev