[MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

[Freeman]

> From: Richard A. Bartle [mailto:richard at mud.co.uk]
> On 7th March, 2001, Dave Rickey wrote:
 
>> EQ *has* a very close approximation of PermaDeath: Corpse Loss.
 
> Yes, you're right. The fact that they don't get more complaints
> about this gives hope to all people who want some form of PD in
> their games..!

It almost never happens any more.  They DID get a lot of complaints
about it, even to the point that they started keeping additional logs
so that they could replace lost equipment.  Corpse-loss in EQ is a
game-buster.  The newbie experience is so dreadfully un-fun that you
don't even want to start a secondary character with one of your other
7 character slots without twinking it.

But that's because the newbie experience is dreadfully un-fun and
doesn't speak to the viability of permadeath in a game that didn't,
say, suck.

>> So, my expectation of the reaction to PD zones as you describe them
>> is that either they would be skipped, if the reward isn't high
>> enough to draw people in, or they will be ruthlessly powergamed
>> with militaristic precision by players who get in
 
> I've no objection to that, though. The difference is that some of
> those powergamers will DIE.

And quit.  Really, I like PD, but not in EQ.  The rest of the game
isn't up for it.  For starters, why should they go kill those giants
and risk permadeath in the first place?  The giants aren't bothering
anyone, and won't ever bother anyone.  If you kill them, or don't, it
makes absolutely no difference whatsoever to anyone in the world.

Now if the giants have something you *need* in order to prevent your
village from being conquered by the Evil Overlord, or they are going
to come squash your village if you don't stop them, then that could be
pretty neat, and risking death to kill them would be "heroic".

The entire game is all about sitting in one spot killing the same
thing over and over just so you can go sit in a different spot and
kill something else over and over.  That's not a game design that can
be "fixed" just by adding permadeath to it.

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