[MUD-Dev] How much is enough?

[Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt]

On Tue, 23 Apr 2002, Justin Coleman wrote:

> I'm really enjoying the threads on addiction and ownership, lots
> of good ideas there, but they've sparked something of a resonant
> chord in me. The addiction thread in particular made me wonder -
> considering the mindset of some people, notably those who have
> lots of free time and few social obligations (those who usually
> rabidly follow the Achiever / Killer archetype), how much
> information is enough?
 
> For example, in a MMORPG, do players really *need* to see their
> characters' stats? Do they need to see *exactly* how many points
> of damage a weapon does, how many HP that monster has, or how many
> more foobobs they have to kill before they gain a level?

I think its more a question of rewarding the player
instantly. Making visible stats grow is an easy way of making the
reward instant for the player, and thus enforcing the play cycle. If
you take the instant reward away, you will most probably alianate
yourself from the Achiever / Killer's in the game, as their playing
style is not as enforced with rewards as it used to be (although the
game mechanics may be the same). .. in short, yes i think youre
right.

On the other hand, if the player base is large enough, they will
eventually figure out ways of extracting the hidden information from
the game.

Hans Henrik Stærfeldt   |    bombman at diku.dk    | work:  hhs at cbs.dtu.dk      |
Address:                |___  +45 40383492    __|__       +45 45252471     __|
DTU, Kemitorvet,        | Scientific programmer at Center for Biological     |
bygn 208, CBS.          |  Sequence Analysis, Technical University of Denmark|

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