[MUD-Dev] MMORPGs & MUDs

[Sellers]

Dave Rickey wrote:

> The problem [with AC's Allegiance system] is that it creates a
> strict heirarchy, which is only one of the potential structures
> for a community, and a player's place in the heirarchy has more to
> do with how soon they joined and how effective they were at
> recruiting players (who are good at recruiting good recruiters),
> than their actual organizational input or community awareness.

The strict pyramid nature is part of the problem, but I think a more
important one might be that it forces all community/social links to
be vertical rather than horizontal.  That is, your only real link to
the rest of the community is through your patron.  If you and I are
vassals of the same patron, we have *zero* relationship to each
other -- we have no greater reason to help each other out than two
random people who aren't in the allegiance.  We could help each
other to help our patron, but *we* get nothing from the exchange.
That's not a good model for building strong social links.

Further, all allegiances are essentially identical: there's no
reason to choose Allegiance 1 over Allegiance 2.  Now imagine
instead that by joining an allegiance you could buy certain skills
at a discount, based on the specialized skills of everyone above you
in the hierarchy.  You'd quickly see "mace user" allegiances and
"life mage" allegiances evolve, and there would actually be an
*incentive* for joining a mature allegiance, as you'd benefit from
the accumulated discounts of all the 'masters' above you.

OTOH, I understand that AC now gives greater experience to those in
fellowships than those fighting solo.  This is a good example of a
positive-sum game, where the players have an understandable reward
for grouping together.  I'm not playing AC anymore, but I bet that's
a great catalyst for having people form fellowships.

Mike Sellers
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