[MUD-Dev] MMORPGs & MUDs

[Matt Mihaly]

On Mon, 14 Jan 2002, Dave Rickey wrote:

> The thing is, you don't really have to worry about the player who
> rants and raves and gives all of his character's stuff away in a
> grand gesture before cancelling.  It's the ones that just softly
> slip away that really bleed your bottom line.  However, 90%+ of
> ongoing developer effort is focused on established players who say
> 'I'm going to quit if you don't put in something new to amuse me.'
> Rarely do we go back and say "What's our newbie experience like
> these days?"

Boy is that ever true. We always laugh and joke when a player makes
a big deal about quitting because "This game sucks now./The Gods are
nazis./etc/etc." They're almost always back in a couple days.

And you're right about the developer effort being focused on
established players. It's easy to let their bitching dictate your
development schedule. A few weeks ago, I created a newbie in Achaea
and played it for awhile. I remember completing the newbie intro and
then feeling utterly lost, and I'm the lead designer! Some work was
clearly needed, and still is.

--matt

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