[MUD-Dev] How much is enough?

[Ron Gabbard]

From: "Damion Schubert" <damion at ninjaneering.com>

> That being said, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most
> of the people who play EverQuest don't like risk, and while they
> don't say so, they find something idyllic about sitting around
> with friends chatting and waiting for a spawn.  Knowing that you
> _know_ how to solve a monster's AI, and only a screwup on
> someone's part will mess that up.

> Remembering back to my EQ days, I'd say I spent about 10% of my
> time in 'risky' places.  Those were the days that, when I came
> home from work, I had enough energy to deal with monsters bigger
> than me and zones I'd never been in before.  But most of the time,
> when I came home, I logged on to be with my guildmates, and I must
> say, making progress with your character, chatting with your buds,
> and taking no risk was often the perfect remedy when work had
> blown out all available brain cells.

I agree and disagree.  Discussing 'risk' without discussing 'reward'
is only half of the equation.  If you're talking about only 'risk',
then no player of any game likes risk... it's irrational.

In the case of EQ, you're talking about a game with an extremely
severe penalty for death in terms of resulting downtime and lost
time in the form of lost XP.  Just travelling through certain areas
presented a higher risk than most players wanted to take.  Thus,
they get speed, levitation, and invisibility buffs to mitigate that
risk.  However, I would argue that the players would prefer the risk
along with the steps to mitigate that risk to a world with no risk
in the first place.

Cheers,

Ron

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