[MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

[John Buehler]

Raph Koster writes:

> Losing the in-game things to which you have an emotional attachment
> is the opportunity for exit (in fact, any moment where you have
> reduced emotional attachment to something in-game--eg, when you are
> a newbie versus a well-established character). The more emotionally
> invested in something the player is, the less likely they are to
> actually leave and quit paying.

> Logic says that you should
>
>   1- try to get them emotionally invested as quickly as possible
>
>   2- remove every feature or activity that could reduce emotional
>   investment

If you get your players emotionally invested in something that cannot
deliver on the entertainment that you are claiming that you provide,
they will get emotionally upset.  An example of this is your own
Ultima Online, where player character killing became an unexpected,
but dominant form of gameplay.  The fact that the game is a
multiplayer game is what complicates the task of delivering on the
entertainment that you claim you are providing.

In a single player game, you have a far greater degree of control over
player entertainment and can draw the player in and make thier heart
race.  That's because you can present the entertainment for that
single player and make sure that they aren't disappointed.  Or at
least it's a heck of a lot easier than with a multiplayer game.

EverQuest is criticized for being a single player game that you play
with other people.  Very modest levels of character interaction
exists.  You group, you trade and you talk.  That's about it.  Those
forms of interaction don't give other players much control over your
entertainment.  When a player's entertainment is affected by other
players, they frequently get annoyed.  This results in a variety of
web flame wars, and certainly tempers flare in the game world as well.
People are rude, short-tempered and so on.  All because they're trying
to play a single player game and other players keep getting in the
way.

If you are going to get your players emotionally involved in your
game, you had better set VERY clear expectations amongst your players.
A heavily PvP game would seem to be the ideal use of the multiplayer
genre, as much as I hate the idea.  Such a game would clearly indicate
that you are stepping into a hell of combat and competition.  That
very much matches what the internet multiplayer environment is set up
to offer.

My personal take on this is to go in the other direction.  Let the
interactions between players and with the game NOT get the players
overly invested in the game experience.  Keep the experience light.
Rely on occasional visits by players instead of having them in your
game world for 6 hours a day, every day.  People are better able to
keep their sense of perspective this way.  They won't be as intent on
buying virtual achievements, on powergaming or on being rude or even
abusive to other players.  To be cute about it, less is more.

JB

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