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

[Michael Tresca]

Travis Nixon posted on Tuesday, December 17, 2002 1:23 PM
> Michael Tresca wrote:

>> The point is that muling is not appropriate to Star Wars.  It's
>> metagaming.  It shouldn't happen.  It will happen -- but it will
>> NOT be encouraged or ignored.  This helps create a filter for
>> players who are not all about squeezing every ounce of blood out
>> of every character to win some inane race (against themselves,
>> presumably) to be uber-powerful.  A bunch of folks said they
>> wouldn't play Star Wars now that they know they can't have mules.
>> Thank god -- I don't want to play on any game where someone is so
>> attached to the ability to mule that they wouldn't play a MMORPG
>> because they could metagame that way.

> If its not a race, why does it bother you so much that they're
> winning?

Ironically, that statement implies there's a Goal-Oriented Player's
universe and we all just happen to play in it.  I disagree.

Muling is aggressive.  It's not a passive activity like soloing.
Muling takes all the advantages of working together as a group with
none of the disadvantages of selfishness, communication, and
distribution of loot.  The social group, by its nature, requires
others.  Muling is self-propagating -- or at least, exclusive to
itself.  If enough people mule, I as a socializer cannot find other
people to group with.

Keep that up, and Star Wars becomes "Big Stable of Mules" Wars.

Keep THAT up, and Star Wars' theme is diluted to the point that the
wonderfully rich universe no longer has relevance.  Who can be
really concerned about a blaster hit when you have two other
characters waiting to selflessly pop in and mindlessly die to
protect your Jedi?  How can I be concerned about the struggle
between the light and dark side of the Force when you're playing
Jedis on both sides who actively work together?  How can I worry
about Princess Leia's welfare when she and Darth Vader go off to
Tatooine and start hunting swamprats?

This is not a generic universe.  The theme is actually larger than
the MMORPG and that means a lot of people are going to be there to
play Star Wars, not to play "Asheron's Call/Everquest/Ultima Online
but in space."

If the universe is to be maintained, some playstyles need to be
prohibited early in its community development, or it will quickly
degrade into chaos like so many other MMORPGs have.  And then, when
the NEXT game comes along, it's yet another bus stop to the latest
MMORPG. Star Wars needs to concentrate on establishing a community
in the long term (which I believe to be ultimately more profitable)
than just grabbing as many credit cards as it can in the first year
it opens.

Are all playstyles valid?  Sure.  Are they all valid for every game?
Absolutely not.

But I do suggest the Sims as an alternative.

Mike "Talien" Tresca
RetroMUD Administrator
http://www.retromud.org/talien



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