[MUD-Dev] Star Wars Galaxies: 1 character per server

[Dubious Advocate]

"Michael Tresca" <talien at toast.net> wrote:

> That's right. That makes you a self-contained system.  If there's
> a party system, and presumably there is, it's purpose is for you
> to play with other people.  If the purpose of MMORPGs was to have
> a bunch of single-player folks running around by themselves, why
> bother having other people on it at all?

For a hobbyist MUD I think yours is a perfectly acceptable
prequirement to being a member of the community.

But it's a critical flaw for a commercial product. I'm not in favor
of being forced into a very rigid and specific playstyle simply
because a developer somewhere deems it desirable and therefore
mandatory.

The current crop of MMOGs have increasingly attempted to force
co-dependence and social interaction.  "You SHALT play with others
before Me!"  Their goal isn't the intangle of social evolution IRL -
they simply want consumer retention through social factors
supplementing addictive Pavlovian game mechanics.

I don't pay for those products.  I'm a casual player with a
well-balanced lifestyle, and while for the most part I am social
when online and assuming my avatar there are nevertheless times when
I do want to go off and putter / be self-sufficient.

I'm most likely to be an organizer and a facilitator but I do so
asynchronous to game time.  And I like to wear different avatars as
the mood strikes.  Somehow this gets me labeled a mule.  So be it.

Ironically people like me are in the majority and we consitute the
ideal customer.  We pay the same revenue, we burden the system
least, we're most likely to interact with other customers in the
most positive light, and in general are most likely to stay the
longest because we avoid burnout.

Again, for a hobbyist MUD any rules the community deems fit is
appropriate.  But commercial publishers should be thinking in terms
of permitting a wide variety of longterm customers instead of the
current devotion to unwashed bleary-eyed addicts.

IMHO.  :-)

-----
Dave Scheffer
"Questions are a burden to others, answers a prison for oneself"


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