[MUD-Dev] Retention without Addiction?

[bradley newton haug]

Raph Wrote:

> I must say that it is refreshing to see a conspiracy theory that
> doesn't make us out to be evil scheming geniuses.

I know better.

> Usually conspiracy theories give us far too much credit. So this
> is delightful, a theory that assumes us to be complete idiots
> instead.

Not idiots, just people that assume that players are uneducated, and
lack critical thinking or ability to reason.

Conspiracy theory? Did you read your post?  I didn't have to look
real hard here, Raph, you plainly stated that the database needs
exceeded your planning, and that it was a moving target during
development.  This led to my 'no planning' comment, I'm not sure how
'the game industry' does things but that's terrifying to my
background and sensibilities.

> Let's do a thought experiment. Let's say that this was purely
> adesign decision. I know you disagree, but we're speaking
> hypothetically here, so humor me. It's a design decision. What
> exactly do you say or do differently?

just say 'Hi, we're SCS, and here is why', not 'Hi, we're SCS and
here is a long list of unrelated grasping reasons', and some
patronization to boot.

> I happen to believe that you treat customers and potential
> customers with respect and give them as many of the facts as you
> are allowed to do.  Therefore, we did exactly that. I've found it
> to be a much more successful route of community management than
> any form of concealment. Concelament gets found out as you trip
> yourself up, and then you end up with a far worse problem. Nothing
> is as self-consistent as the truth.

Again, if it was design, then why the DB song and dance.  That bit
of press should have gone by PR, if you really don't know what's
wrong with it I suggest you run it past them.
 
> I've also found that generally, an issue like this cannot be
> pinned down to solely one causal factor. There are so many
> different reasons to go one route or the other that saying that
> it's simply because of X or Y is reductionist. In other words, all
> issues with muds are design decisions. And all design decisions
> are also business decisions, audience decisions, technical
> decisions, and so on. To fail to understand the impact of a design
> decision on all the possible areas of a game is to be ignorant of
> how muds actually play out.

Oh stop trying to tell people they don't understand while you barrel
roll dropping flares. A design decision is one made in the design
process by a designer, a business decision is handed to the design
team by upstairs or god forbid.. marketing.  A business 'oh crap'
decision is one made a month to launch.  Nothing here is new to
either me, or almost any industry.  This isn't a big mystery.

> To be fair, nobody knows how a design decision impacts all areas
> of a mud.  Therefore, I firmly believe that we're all ignorant of
> how muds actually play out given any arbitrary design decision,
> barring some of the most obvious and frequently repeated bad
> decisions.

Agreed.

Regards

brad


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