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

[Dubious Advocate]

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

> The quality of MMORPGs starts out high and slowly degrades due to
> entropic factors.  One major aspect of those entropic factors is
> that the community slowly falls apart, with players become less
> and less interested in playing the game and more and more
> interested their own goals.

I haven't seen that.  At least not universally.  Communities
constantly remake themselves.  It is typically individuals in the
main who follow the arc you outlined, but typically these are people
whose personality means they would do this no matter what you as a
developer could do.  People's lives change over time, their values
change, the demands on their time change...

> Star Wars HAS to take a stand on this game's theme.  They must
> make an effort to shape and mold it, or it will stop being Star
> Wars.  The branding cost the creators money, the universe is out
> there representing the franchise.  It cannot simply degrade into
> the usual idiotic chaos of guys running around screaming for
> heals.

People being people, I don't see anything can prevent this.  I
certainly agree the company needs to maintain a fairly constant and
consistent level of presence & events.  But benign neglect is
exactly what they should do, and as you pointed out before is what
has worked best in other products.  Other franchises initially
started off constrictive and loosened up when they realized vision
didn't have to be a straitjacket.

I strongly concur with your other observations, particularly that on
the causes and ramifications of muling.  My personal take is to exam
the culminatory effects of design decisions and make adjustments to
the product.  Often the lesson learned is that a base decision way
down the chain is the real problem and the assumption behind that
base decision needs to be tossed.  As I get older I've found this is
nearly always true when I see a disconnect in a macro system.

Putting the burden on customers to change fundamental human
behaviors is IMO a non-starter and a waste of company resources
towards a counter-profitable goal.  Better to acknowledge the
behaviors and put them to work for us.  People want their stuff
fast?  But in an automated global "Amazon.Tatooine" and a jawa pulls
up five minutes later in an aircar with your delivery.  Good and
good for you.

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


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