[MUD-Dev] Why are we all making RPGs?

[Freeman]

> From: Koster, Raph [mailto:rkoster at verant.com]

>> Console game designers might get around to making some sort of
>> persistent state world (aka MUD), too.

> Yep. And I bet it will have avatars and be an RPGish thing, at
> first. ;)

If PSO is first, I think they're there already.

Console games seem to have a wider variety of game types (though as
with PC games - a whole BUNCH of knock-off's, too), than PC games.

But rethinking that, there are an awful lot of quirky niche games on
PCs, too.  Barbie Fashion Designer and so on.  Maybe they just seem
to SELL better on consoles.

>>> What parts of today's RPGs have we learned to be so essential
>>> that they should also be present in non-RPGs?
  
>> Avatars.  End of list. :)

> That's not quite accurate--I think that there's a bunch of more
> abstract things, some of which are intimately bound up in avatars,
> and some of which just have to do with retention.

I was thinking in terms of PnP RPGs - the avatars I'd keep.  The
"other stuff" (and particularly retention-related things) seem to me
to be more inherent to MUDs than to RPGs.  My bad: I have a tendency
not to think of CRPGs and MUDs as RPGs, which can make communication
difficult since everyone else on the planet sees them as the same
thing.

>>> What single-player genres could make a natural or interesting
>>> transition to online?

>> Well, all three of them.

> Strategy, action, RPG? What about puzzle? :)

Oh, that must be what's down that OTHER isle of software, with all
the edutainment games.  I never go down that isle.  I was thinking
FPS, RTS and RPG.  And being a little facetious. :P

But uhm... yeah.  Actually that trivia game you play in bars beats
the pants off everything else (combined) as the first and largest
massively multiplayer online game.

Hmm.  http://www.ntn.com/:

  "Through the Company's Digital Interactive Television (DITV)
  technology, the NTN Network broadcasts entertainment and sports
  programming engaging more than 1.7 million players and reaching
  over 6 million unique consumers each month in more than 3,000
  national hospitality locations like TGIFriday's, Damon's,
  Bennigan's and others."

Wow.  Six million subscribers.
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