[MUD-Dev] The changing nature of fun

[John Buehler]

Brian Hook writes:

> 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.

I did this as well.  And it really was buckets of fun, even though I
died a couple times.  And I did it in the other direction.  When I
got to Qeynos, I wanted a kiss-the-wall emote...

One thing that struck me about that trip is that there was more
stuff going on than I could actually experience.  THAT is an
incredible thing.  When players aren't on top of everything that's
going on, it really adds to the value of a game experience.
Revisiting the same content over and over simply encourages players
into this experience of 'unfun'.  They dissect the content, discover
its innards and it just becomes a game system instead of a virtual
world.

That would be my first observation.

> 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.

My second observation would be that the intricate (i.e. planned)
structure of current games is an inherently limiting mechanism.
Travel should have about a dozen LAYERS of entertainment associated
with it - whether structured by the game developers (blech) or
simply practical for the travelers, using the available game
mechanisms (yay).  At present, the only thing that players can do in
most travel scenarios is talk.  The first few trips, a player should
marvel in the newness of the experience.  After that, the player
should be able to engage in other activities.  Some may have to do
with travel, such as orienteering, watching for wildlife or other
noteworthy activity in the area (I'm assuming that wildlife becomes
noteworthy at some point).  Others may have nothing at all to do
with travel, such as playing cards in the back of a wagon, or
pelting the caravan guards with pebbles.

Adding new monsters and items is NOT new content.  Adding a new way
for players to interact with each other or with the game environment
IS.  Just as adding new cards to a deck doesn't create new content.
It's still the same card games.  (To the list: Just take the analogy
for the point it makes and don't analyze the hell out of it)

I know this isn't the point you're trying to make, but I'm hesitant
to accept that the silver lining in the cloud is justification for
the cloud :)

JB


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