FW: [MUD-Dev] Interesting EQ rant (very long quote)

[John Buehler]

Matt Mihaly writes:

>> As I claimed in another reply to one of your posts, single player
>> games (like books or movies) are well-suited to intense
>> experiences, while multiplayer games - particularly those where you
>> don't know who you'll be interacting with - are less capable of
>> reliably providing such experiences.  Because I can't guarantee the
>> way that my players will interact with each other, I'm trying to
>> lessen their belief that they will become mayors, barons and kings.
>> Only one guy gets to be a king, and he's the most extreme player in
>> the game.

> Naah, that's not true. Was there only one king at any time in
> Earth's history? Everyone can't be king in a meaningful sense, but
> not only can there be many kings, there can be pyramids of power
> under the king that expand downwards to include a lot of the
> players.

Sure.  Don't take me quite so literally.  The crux of my point is that
in multiplayer environments, and particularly competitive ones, claims
of superlatives in entertainment (such as being the king) aren't
pertinent to the majority of players.  Claims of the 'struggle for
power' or some such thing are perfectly valid.  *That* is
entertainment that your game truly provides.  The more complex and
fragile the entertainment that is claimed to be provided by a game,
the less likely that a given player will be able to gain that
entertainment.  So I think in terms of durable, straightforward
entertainment that most people are able to track down and enjoy.
Competitive entertainment is durable, but it's more hardcore than I
want to offer to casual players.

JB

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev