[MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

[Koster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu 
> [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf Of
> John Buehler
> Sent: Monday, March 12, 2001 3:24 AM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: RE: [MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

> 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.

True.

>  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.

The entertainment we claim we are providing is that of a multiplayer
game.  Without the complication, our raison d'etre goes away.

> 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.

Curiously, actual play patterns strongly challenge this claim, though
it seems obvious on the face of it. Players get far more emotionally
invested in online games. They play them longer. They draw players in
more. And it seems to happen pretty easily.

> If you are going to get your players emotionally involved in your
> game, you had better set VERY clear expectations amongst your
> players.

To be frank, I fail to see how we STOP players from being emotionally
involved in our games.

> 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.

This is a recipe for no players, is it not? If you are successful, you
have no emotional attachment. Why would anyone play a game they do not
care about? Or care very little about? We keep doing things that we
care about, and we stop doing the things that we do not care about.

OK, so that was a little unfair. You actually said, "overly invested."
Interestingly, a while back I wrote that "for the love of God, we need
to stop sanitizing the emotion out of our games." I do not regard
addiction as being equivalent to emotional involvement,so that may be
our disconnect.

> Keep the experience light.

I do not see how this directly relates to emotional investment?

> Rely on occasional visits by players instead of having them in your
> game world for 6 hours a day, every day.

This definitely does NOT relate to emotional investment. I have a fair
amount emotionally invested in my status and postings on mud-dev. I
spend less than six hours in a month replying to messages. Time !=
emotional investment.

>  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.

They also won't be as intent on actually showing up.

-Raph
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