[MUD-Dev] On socialization and convenience

[Vincent Archer]

According to Freeman, Jeff:

> In EQ I either already know the person (they are in my guild,
> which means I probably met them in UO, incidentally), or I never
> see them again after buying SoW potions from them.  And don't
> recall what their name was anyway, so even if I do see them again
> sometime, I won't remember them.

That's pretty much the case these days. But it boils down to one
thing: there are too many people selling things. In the first months
of EQ, GF Market was pretty well uncrowded, East Common tunnel was
almost empty, and you had a few people selling bronze armor or
jewelcraft (post jewel patch).

I had a friend who was one of the first master jewelcrafters on our
server at the time, and about everybody *knew* the names of these
guys.

Today, it seems that 90% of the enchanters over level 50 are master
jewelers (but they don't advertise anymore), and entering Greater
Faydark is like starting to stock market ticker (with all the
personality of a stock behind the name of the auctioneer).

It boils down to that. Numbers. The socialisation is inversely
proportional to the density of players (well, not exactly. Unless
you count being alone as being immensely social... with yourself).

I suspect that people find UO vendors a useful socialisation tool,
not because they let you sell stuff offline, but because they
enforce a scarcity of vendors.

--
Vincent Archer                                         Email: archer at nevrax.com

Nevrax France.                              Off on the yellow brick road we go!
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