[MUD-Dev] Many MUDs in one? (was: Geometric content generation)

[Ian Collyer]

Matt Mihaly wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Oct 2001, Ola Fosheim [iso-8859-1] Grøstad wrote:

--- SNIP! ---

>> I wish I knew of a study of this, but my unqualified GUESS is
>> that quite a large number of MUD players only play MUDs for a
>> couple of months until they are able to tear themselves away from
>> the system to never really play again.  I also guess that this
>> holds for a lot of hard core EQ players, they have learned and
>> felt that they do not have the time to meet the requirements of
>> the high level game play and will shy away from games that will
>> induce an artificial need to do so. In a couple of years the
>> majority of hard-core game players will have burned off any
>> novelty they might have experienced under this gaming model due
>> to the intensive requirements in existing systems.

> The lovely thing about gamers is that there are whole bunches of
> new ones created every year. You're not targetting a static
> population.  

Hmm, how about a MUD revenue model that caters for changing
playstyles as the individual gamer 'matures'.

  1) Cheap and cheerful, time intensive gaming for students to
  provide a large user base of 'commoners' with some ability to
  advance into the next stage.

  2) Now your young gamer is earning a living and additional revenue
  can be generated by selling status enhancement in the form of
  equipment, skills, etc. as peer recognition is a powerful
  inducement to purchase.

  3) Having matured and grown more self-confident, the older gamer
  has less need for adulation and intellectual challenge becomes
  more of a driving force. Options here are complex resource
  management issues, trade skills and political games. These users
  may have an impact on your bottom line by increasing the liquidity
  of the internal market as they use spending power to compensate
  for their restricted playing time.

You have a MUD experience which changes to meet the players' needs
and all playstyles depend on each other, giving positive
reinforcement and keeping everyone immersed in the game.

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