[MUD-Dev] AI not worth doing in our games?

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

From: Damion Schubert [mailto:damion at ninjaneering.com] 

>> It may have been a despised feature of the game but all the same
>> I think that it is believable... Given all that we know about
>> dark elves... if you choose to play a dark elf, shouldn't you
>> expect some adversity?
 
> Yes, but was it fun?

You can't just remove all adversity from a game and expect it to be
fun either. If you take out the fact that Dark Elves can't shop in
certain areas, you've just removed a complete planning problem for
that player. Its fun running out of food as a troll in a good area,
you have to interact with other players to buy food from them. Its
fun becoming over encumbered because you've picked up too much loot
away from home - now you have to make a decision about what to
ditch. Hell, even if its not fun, at least it engages the brain a
little more than hitting combine/autoattack and watching Southpark.

Equally, by having shops close at dark, people will have to plan to
arrive there by day time. Is this annoying? Only if you don't see
this behaviour consistently, and thus are taken by surprise when it
happens. Furthermore, if night cycles are kept sensibly short, the
inconvenience can be minimised.  Anyway, theres no rule stating that
every shop in town has to be shut an night. Perhaps theres a 24 hour
store that's known for its poor prices.  Great, we've just added
another decision - hang around till morning for more money, or sell
it now and get back to what you were doing. Or perhaps drop it off
in your appartment and sell it later? So many possible choices are
removed by having shops open 24x7. Sure they aren't big choices, but
they are more engaging than no choices - especially as they are the
kind of choices that don't have one correct answer that's always the
same.

Each time a developer streamlines an MMO, they keep prunning off
whole branches of decision trees. Then they wonder why people find
them boring?

Dan

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev