[MUD-Dev] On socialization and convenience

[Koster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Sage
> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 9:09 AM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: RE: [MUD-Dev] On socialization and convenience
  
> I never speak up on this list too much, as I am far more of a
> lurker by nature.  However, I would have to agree with Jeff that
> downtime is not relational to socialization in anything more than
> an ancillary way.  I believe that socialization can be summed up
> as introduction and then companionship.

> Gameplay elements, such as a crisis situation where another player
> needs a specialist such as the need for a healer, a wealthy
> merchant or the need for a fighter adds to introduction points.
> Of course specialization is only one such avenue.  Nonetheless, I
> don't think downtime really does anything useful for introduction,
> unless helping one another shorten downtime is considered
> downtime.

This ignores the factor of where the introduction point
occurs. Either it occurs in a place, or it doesn't. If it occurs
without a place, then it's occurring on a global chat channel or via
some sort of matchmaking service.  If it occurs in a place, then we
have to worry about why these different people happened to be in the
same place. What's more, int he healer scenario, the healer by
definition has to be in downtime, or else he's too busy to heal the
other player; in the fight needed by merchant case, the fighter has
to be between adventures or else he's off slaying a dragon, not
helping a merchant.

Fundamentally, if the other guy's busy, then he's not coming to the
introduction party. If he isn't busy, then he's gotta be parked
somewhere, or on the way to somewhere. And that suggests we need to
manage traffic flow. And it also suggests we need to manage
downtime, or else everyone will ALWAYS be busy--especially achiever
types who by nature seem to be driven by always having another rung
ont he ladder to reach.

> Companionship is where downtime helps, but only insomuch as you
> are giving people time to socialize, and probably not offering
> them anything else to do.

The latter isn't downtime? ;)

> This does encourage people to look for other interesting and
> compatible individuals to help them while away the time, but it
> has one very negative impact.  It is time wasting.  I have a very
> limited schedule to visit the world, downtime is an exit point for
> me.  So I would like to offer an alternative.  Leisure time.  If
> you have a quick way for people to visit leisure spots such as
> casinos, nightclubs, concert halls, etc... you encourage
> socialization.

My experience indicates otherwise, and so does yours, Paul.

On LegendMUD (a fairly GoP environment, fundamentally) we added a
socialization area with a bunch of nifty social facilities. The Wild
Boar Tavern offers a lounge for chatting, goofy food to buy, an
auditorium, a gift shop to buy goofy items like birthday cards, a
wedding shop for in-game events, etc. You can reach it instantly
from ANYWHERE by merely typing "OOC." It was there in an instant for
anyone who wanted it.

It doesn't get used.

On UO we had taverns with NPCs, dart boards, chess boards,
backgammon, dice.  There were multiple ones in every town. You know
as well as I how crowded they were.

Leisure time in a mud is *pointless* time in players' eyes, and only
a small subset of your players will be looking to spend pointless
time.

-Raph
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