[MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

[Adam Martin]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Koster, Raph" <rkoster at verant.com>
To: "MUD-DEV (E-mail)" <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2001 3:58 PM
Subject: [MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

> A new wave of persistent worlds is on the horizon, whose designers
> are trying to find ways to introduce PKing without putting off
> players. The basic idea is a reworking of the UO approach, in that
> if you don't want to be Pked then you don't have to be. Most areas
> in the game are safe, with only a few 'badland' areas where you risk
> being killed if you enter. The rewards in the badlands are greater,
> of course; if you survive, you'll have a lead on people who stay at
> home. It's PK by geography rather than by server.

> Unfortunately, 'having a lead' doesn't mean anything if the people
> who don't put themselves at risk can catch up simply by playing more
> hours than you.  All you're buying yourself is time. Nevertheless,
> this is how most of the new games are handling it. It's a partial
> solution, but it still doesn't bite the bullet.

> To make it worthwhile to enter the badlands, it has to be the case
> that you can gain tangible gameplay rewards that simply cannot be
> obtained elsewhere.  If you could reach higher levels in the
> badlands than out of them, for example, then that would do it; if
> you could increase your character's stats beyond those of
> stay-at-homes; if you could buy bigger houses, or get higher skills,
> or bake tastier pizzas - whatever. Putting your character at risk to
> gain meaningful rewards that you can't get anywhere else adds the
> necessary sense of achievement to keep players playing.

Just to add a footnote, Diablo2 contains an example of this effect in
action. There are 3 levels of difficulty, but the game is identical in
all 3 versions, just more and very much tougher monsters and
bosses. I've never found any appeal in playing an indentical game a
second time on the harder level, and many friends agreed.

However, there is a whole class of "super-rare" items in Diablo2 that
scale up to being 3 times as good as the "best of the rest". These are
*only* attainable on the two harder difficult settings. Result? Many
people, who haven't the time nor inclination to play again just for
the sake of doing so, take their existing character (who has already
won the game on easy) and start again on the nightmare difficulty,
just to get a chance at finding these "super-rare" items.

Adam

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