[MUD-Dev] [MUD-Dev][DGN] encouraging quick-start community for newbies

[rayzam]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Martin" <amsm2 at cam.ac.uk>
To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2001 5:11 AM
Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] [MUD-Dev][DGN] encouraging quick-start community for
newbies

>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "rayzam" <rayzam at home.com>
>> To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
>> Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2001 11:53 PM
>> Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] [MUD-Dev][DGN] encouraging quick-start
>> community for newbies

>> This has inherent social problems. A random group of 6 people does
>> not mean they'll get along. A random group of 6 people [even with
>> the same backgrounds/character types], does not mean they'll be
>> helpful. It allows for global spamming. Grief players can keep
>> other new players out of the game [of course, being able to 'turn
>> it off' or exclude certain people would solve that]. Players would
>> want to have this capability for other players of their own choice,
>> i.e., starting in the game with friends. By forcing randomness
>> instead of social choice, they'll resent the system more.

> They don't need to get along. The point of having more than one is
> to increase the chance that they will find *someone* who they might
> enjoy meeting. Again, they don't need in all cases to be helpful -
> although it would be easy to give benefits for doing so (e.g. if one
> player completes a quest/task, and then any of the others complete
> the same thing a short time later, the first player gets some
> (small) token reward from the game).

If you want to increase the chance that they'll meet someone they'll
enjoy meeting, why limit it to 6?


> I don't expect it would guarantee improvement - but I do think it
> would have a generally improving effect. It would also be
> interesting to see if the overall social dynamic of the game-world
> were any different from being "seeded" with tiny groups of people
> who knew each other from the start of the game (well, the start from
> their personal perspectives).

Possibly interesting. Though for established games [i.e., not 'grand
opening'], a lot of times new players come in as friends or groups, or
they come in as a friend of an established player. Wouldn't you want
to foster this social community?



>> And finally, I'm not sure this solves any problems. If the players
>> are all truly new, then they're a group of 6 lost players, who may
>> all enter into the Dragon's Cave together and die. Or none of whom
>> know what's going on. If its a matter of learning how the game
>> works, then maybe it's similar to one of those assembly-required
>> items. One person does it and muddles through. One person asks for
>> advice from someone with more knowledge about assembly or having
>> assembled a bike or a cabinet or whatnot once before. Or 6 people
>> trying to do it together, which in my experience, inevitably
>> degenerates with frustration building until it's down to one of the
>> first 2 cases :)

> Ah, but after one has died the hope is that he/she will at least
> inform the others of the danger. Perhaps I should add that I see
> this as giving people new to the game a mini-network of other people
> to start off with: I didn't imagine that a task is easier to figure
> out with more people thinking about it - but if you need to ask for
> help, having 6 people all asking around tends to work out better.

Again, why limit it to 6? If it's of importance to foster a network to
help those starting out, why not have an OOC [if roleplaying matters
to the game] channel meant for asking questions? We have a 'mentor'
channel, made for any and all questions. Having some sort of Query
channel handles the idea of people asking question about the game
mechanics/interface/simple things, and results in a method where
they're most likely to get a response that helps them.

but thusfar, I'm only focusing on the question and answer portion of
your suggestion. Having a mini-network of others to start off and play
with, is a good idea. Perhaps a way for the new players to put their
names in a hat per se, advertising that they want to
explore/play/learn the game with others, and then the game sets them
up with others advertising the same thing, and within the same
zone/starting area/region/etc. Sort of a new player matchmaking
service.



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