[MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

[Brian Hook]

At 10:38 AM 3/14/01 -0700, Travis Nixon wrote:
>Brian Hook wrote:
>
> > The direction I would take if doing an MMORPG today would consist of
> > an unfolding story followed by a "stasis period" where no major
> > changes would happen.  The story and associated content would be
> > done ahead of time, unfold over (say) 18 months, during which time
> > the players could have a chance to change the outcome.  When the
> > story was complete, the world enters stasis, which is similar to
> > what EQ is like today.  All the balancing is done early on, before
> > the stasis period.  And if you want to get extra saucy, you can have
> > PvP enabled once stasis is reached =)
>
>WHOA!  Wait a minute.
>
>You actually...uh...
>
>You think...
>
>You WANT the world to become static after a period of dynamicism?
>
>*boggle*
>
>Ok, I'm flabbergasted.
>
>Why, just out of curiosity? :)

Practicality, more than anything else.  At some point the game should be 
theoretically balanced, and hopefully the vast majority of exploits and 
obvious imbalances should be identified in the game's first 18 
months.  After that you can lock it down (hopefully).

This also would coincide with the overarching story line that would unfold 
periodically (weekly, daily, whatever) during this time period.  Since the 
story has been serialized from day one, you can attempt to have a uniform, 
consistent and "believable" story unfold over a very lengthy period of 
time.  And, of course, you allow the players to tweak the outcome based on 
their actions.

Freezing the "story" isn't something I'd say I WANT, it's just a practical 
consideration so that your game designers can move onto your next 
project.  Hopefully by that point the players and volunteers (or whatever 
they're called after all the lawsuits =/) will be able to drive the world 
along.

So another way of putting it is that the first 18 months it's more of a 
game, driven primarily by the developer.  After that, it's "turned over" to 
the players so that the developer can concentrate on their next big product.

Brian Hook

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