[MUD-Dev] Mass customization in MM***s

[P.David]

From: "Brandon J. Van Every" <vanevery at 3DProgrammer.com>

> Yeah, I think it's a mistake to assume we all need a lot of
> personal investment in who we want to beat.  Gratifying our own
> egos is first and foremost.  I've had a few games with Axis &
> Allies players online, that I've never seen much before and I'll
> never see again.  The more important sales point is the character
> of who you're fighting, not how well you know him.  First you
> start with posturing in the newsgroup.  You're arguing about what
> is or isn't a valid A&A strategy.  Then you duke it out in a game.
> You get to know them personally a little teeny bit through the
> ingame chat.  Enough that when he quits in a huff, you feel *very*
> satifisfied that you got him!  You don't need some recurring
> multi-week relationship with him to feel good about kicking his
> ass.  Just that he was a boaster that represented some kind of
> challenge, and was enough of a human being to be a crybaby when
> you whipped him.

> Think drama, not time committment.

> People like to prove that they're right.  They don't care at who's
> expense.

First post here, so please excuse any breach in etiquette...

It seems that there are two very distinct beasts under consideration
here, at least from my recent perusing of the last few posts.  I
have been an avid player of quake and cs for a while now, as well as
assuming the role of a most annoying player on a mud.  I have
noticed a few things that stand out in the two mediums overall.  I
would imagine that the sense of camraderie in most online games is
what sometimes draws us to them.  I know that in quake I love to get
on and lay down a smacking, but there seems to be something missing
if everytime I get online I play with people I do not know at all.
I do not mean that I require some sort of large time commitment to
enjoy the game, but there is something to be said for some sort of
contact outside of random playing.  For instance, I loved to play CS
on a particular server because at first it pinged well for me.
However, I noticed that as I spent time playing there and learning,
I got to recognize some of the players names who were there.  In
time I got to know the players a bit (mostly from chats while I was
dead in the first few minutes of the game, waiting for respawn :) ).
There is something a little more satisfying in beating someone whom
you know online, both for gratification and for a measure of your
abilities sometimes.  I would regularly get smacked by the same
group of players on the server, but after my learning curve started
evening out some, I was able to play at their level, and as such it
was much more rewarding for me to do so.

I think that perhaps you have mentioned something of the very same
idea in your post.  You had to argue with someone on a newsgroup
about strategy first, and then you got to play them.  I'd bet that
beating them after arguing with them about strategy first was a much
more satisfying experience than just logging into a random game, and
beating the people there.  I don't know if there is a need for a
large time commitment, but just enough to get to know somewhat the
person you are dealing with, and it didnt even need to be in a
manner that was nice necessarily, just that you knew them in some
form.  I imagine it makes things a bit more personal at that point,
as opposed to just playing random people.

I imagine this is evident in competitions and ladders as well.  At
first you may not know the people you are playing at all, but if you
manage to progress through the ladder a bit, you find that you are
now familiar with some of the people (mainly opponents still near
your level).

Just a thought of mine, I hope it isnt too far off topic...

p

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