[MUD-Dev] Innovation restrictions

[Corey Crawford]

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Buehler" <johnbue at msn.com>
> Richard A. Bartle writes:
>> On 06 May 2001, Greg Munt wrote:

>>> Or, at least, players are unwilling/unready to accept big changes
>>> to something that they already use. Innovation has to be presented
>>> as a completely new game.

>> Exactly. Even if it is a new game, though, the players of existing
>> games will tend to feel uneasy about it. After all, by implication
>> it's supposed to be "better" than the game they're playing at the
>> moment. This perhaps explains some of the generally cynical
>> response that new ideas receive.

> Oh, I interpreted your original post as a claim that players try to
> fit the innovation into their existing favorite game and find that
> it wouldn't work there.  A simple example of this would be permanent
> character death as perceived by an EverQuest player.  They assume
> that permadeath would be put into a game that is a clone of
> EverQuest.  I encounter this all the time.

Actually, I encounter this all the time as well. Especially among my
own staff members.

Two of my staff are avid AC players, one of which also plays
UO. Almost every time I bring up an odd but interesting way I want
something to work, they both almost immediately say it won't
work. However, after long heated discussions about said ideas, it
becomes apparent that they usually do relate things to what they have
experience with. Not that that's not good; it's a very good way to
measure your ideas (is it like EQ/AC/UO? No?  GREAT!). ;)

But, unfortunately, said ideas are also very hard to express because
you don't have a whole lot to borrow on when venturing into new
territory. I often resort to books and movies as examples of at least
the logic I'm looking for - which, unfortunately again, doesn't always
work because most people don't read quiet as much as I do.

However, I think this lack of comprehension comes from the lack of
understanding of the whole overall world; which is mostly my fault. I
always have at least basic ideas on how the world will function, while
my staff only gets bits and pieces as I'm bringing ideas and concepts
to articulation.

But that's what I get for being a second rate manager. And a third
rate novelist. And a fourth rate..

---
Corey Crawford | myrddin at seventh.net | www.seventh.net


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