[MUD-Dev] The changing nature of fun

[Brian Hook]

On Behalf Of John Buehler

> What is most entertaining is doing what I want when I want to do
> it. Games that drag me into activities that I don't want to do
> right now have the characteristic that you're talking about: what
> used to be fun ceases to be fun.

That is a nearly perfect assessment of what I was trying to get
across.  However, I'd be careful with "what I want", since often you
don't know what you want.

One my fondest experiences in EQ was doing an elaborate CR in
Blackburrow.  It required a lot of cooperation from friends, and we
were all newbies so it was definitely a new experience.  Basically
it was a "puzzle" for us to solve.

If you had asked me "Hey, do you want to do a CR?" there is no way I
would have said "Sure, sounds great!"  Sometimes you don't know what
you want.

Same with travel.  The first time I had to go from Qeynos to
Freeport, if I had been offered a portal I would have taken it in a
heartbeat.  But instead I had to hoof it at 10th level, in constant
fear of my life.  Fantastic experience, and one of my favorite
gaming experiences ever.

So sometimes you don't know what's fun until it's forced upon you.
But in both of the above situations, they could have suddenly become
UNFUN very rapidly if some time constraint had happened.  If I had
died and spent my last 30 minutes on-line doing a CR instead of
finally reaching level 7, I would have been pissed.  If I had needed
to get to Freeport in 5 minutes in order to make a purchase or trade
or whatever, then the run wouldn't have been fun.

I guess my point is that even with things that "obviously" suck,
they often don't suck.  Downtime sucks, yet it's valuable for
building social frameworks.  CR sucks, but 1% of the time it's cool
and fun.  Travel sucks, but the experience often doesn't (and it's a
good chance to socialize as well and see stuff you may not have seen
before).  etc.  etc.

-Hook


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