[MUD-Dev] Innovation restrictions

[John Buehler]

Corey Crawford writes:

>> 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.

Total agreement.  More than once I've sighed to myself thinking that I
need to preface every new idea with a complete design document for the
world that's bouncing around in my brain.  This is why my posts are
frequently lengthy.  I feel like I'm leaving out all kinds of
assumptions and caveats.

As has been pointed out elsewhere, our imprecise terms aren't helping
the communication process.

JB

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