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

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

From: amanda at alfar.com [mailto:amanda at alfar.com] 
> Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com wrote:
 
>> Beyond the chat side, it would also require /who and /friends to
>> work cross server, which brings in swathes of other concerns.
 
> They already do work cross-server, and even cross-game.  They're
> just called "AIM", "Yahoo Messenger", "ICQ", ...

> Many people ditch the in-game chat system and use something else.

I think we are betraying the games we've played the most. Whilst I
know it was common in UO to ditch the chat system, I'm certainly not
convinced it is in EQ, AO or DAOC. The fact that SOE saw sufficient
demand to release a stand alone chat client allowing access to
people playing speaks volumes.  Or, it could be because 2 out of the
3 games I mention don't (well didn't) allow alt-tab ;).

My main point is that certain tools help people socialise with each
other (/who, /friends, guildchat & etc) and ought to be available
all the time if you want to cement in game relationships. I feel
like I'm missing a limb when I go into games that don't implement
these features.

It's the same with the zone wide shout channels in EQ, they were
mostly full of crap, but it reminded you that you weren't playing
the game by yourself, provided people one could ask for help from
and in certain circumstances was one of the most efficient ways of
building groups to go killing (I was going to say adventuring, but
this is EQ!). Its funny, I've come to the conclusion that I like
old-fangled zone based systems purely for the chat aspect of it
all. You just don't get the same type of interactions in zoneless
games.

Dan

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