[MUD-Dev] (no subject)

[Rayzam]

From: "Kent Peterson" <urquan at rocketmail.com>
> Raph Koster <rkoster at soe.sony.com> wrote:

>> And yet neither seems to be finding an audience (which I find
>> very distressing). Why is that, if they are so fun? If anything,
>> the MMORPG with the most buzz among players right now is Neocron,
>> a come-from-nowhere German game with a very rocky launch.

> Neocron, however, IS fun - to the point where I've convinced a
> half-dozen people at the office to try it out, which is a first
> for me.  It hsa a very good offline demo - demonstrates mid/high
> level play, instead of the kill-rats early phase - and the whole
> mood and atmosphere of the game is very reminiscent of Deus Ex and
> System Shock.  These are holy references to gamers; a game that
> _feels_ like that is going to get the benefit of the doubt from
> many, many people.  It's got a learning curve.  This is fun.  A
> week into the

> I've seen - and because of the XP rewards and the high-quality
> results, it feels like a worthwhile pursuit in its own right, as
> opposed to a timesink keeping the player from other stuff.  The
> talk of relatively griefer-free PvP attracts a certain audience.
> I could go on.  There are some things Neocron does wrong, but a
> lot more that happen to come out right, and make the game in
> general a fun place to spend time.  >

I also beta-tested Neocron, and here are some of my impressions for
why it may be making a buzz.

  - I don't know what the cycle of German beta-tests was, but having
  the German retail servers live when rolling out open betas to the
  US was a bonus in my opinion. I felt it was more worth the time
  trying it out, because I expected a game with the large egregious
  problems worked out already. I beta tested other games, and that
  definitely wasn't the always the case. Granted, I still knew it
  was a beta and would have problems to be fixed and content to be
  balanced.

  - It's a Shadowrun/Cyberpunk world. That's a draw for a lot of PnP
  gamers. I'd paint AO as scifi themed. But Neocron is more the
  interplay between corporations, and those in the shadows
  supporting them.

  - Potential. While I never got far enough to get out of the
  sewers-clearing stage of the game, I saw a lot of potential. I
  don't know what has made it out in the commercial release, the box
  is surprisingly difficult to find. I don't know what is going to
  actually make it into the game later. Most of it was related to
  the corporate game, as that's where I have a lot of experience
  from Shadowrun [gamemastering and running LARPs].  So I may be
  painting my own hopes and expectations on the game. Some examples:

    o The corporations give missions, but only tho those who have
    earned enough of a reputation with them. Various corporations
    are aligned against each other. So by aiding one, you'd gain
    reputation with it, and possibly lose rep with others. Will
    these missions really bias the various strengths of the corps? 
    Will players be given power to influence the corporations and
    corporate decisions? This is in addition to clan play. There's a
    lot to be made of inter-corporate intrigue.

    o Stock market. It was broken beyond belief, allowing for huge
    monetary gains. But if the stock market system is/can be fixed,
    stock prices become a gauge for corporate achievement. And from
    the players' side, it allows for competitive play without
    pk'ing. Buy stock in a company. Aid that company through
    missions for it, or missions against its rivals. Sell the
    stock. Or do the reverse: do things to drive down it's stock
    price, buy up stock, wait till it goes up, sell. Friends and I
    have used a stock market mechanic quite successfully in running
    Shadowrun LARPs. It generates a lot of business and missions for
    the players. Also, the players can feel like they're affecting
    the world, because they'll see stock tickers showing their
    impact. And again, the competitive PvP without direct conflict.

  - Vehicles. Other players who had advanced that far buzzed about
  vehicles.

  - Salvage, recycling, blueprints, crafting. There is/was potential
  for a good system. There just wasn't much worked out about the
  formulas at the time.

Plus the thing about potential is it hasn't failed and isn't a
broken promise. Thus potential is good for buzz. The potential of
the PS2 led to the demise of the Dreamcast. Why buy a Dreamcast if
you'd get a system with all those capabilities just a few months
later? Of course, it took quite a bit longer than that to get to
market. But marketing the potential did the work anyways. The only
pitfall is if you don't meet your promises, i.e. the jilted-lover
effect.

    rayzam
    www.travellingbard.com



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