[MUD-Dev] Finding What a Gamer Lacks in Their Day

[John Buehler]

This may be obvious to some others, but I wanted to present a very
basic notion about gaming and entertainment in general:

  Entertainment is chosen because it provides a stimulus that is
  otherwise missing or lacking in the person's life.

Again, this is something of a proof by obvious, but I'm sure some
will contend the point.  I say proof by obvious because if somebody
has enough of a given stimulus in their life, they aren't drawn to
that stimulus in the purely optional activity that is their
entertainment.  And I'm sure somebody will contend that
entertainment is purely optional as well...

The corollary is similarly obvious:

  Entertainment is avoided because it provides a stimulus that is
  fulfilled or overfulfilled in the person's life.

And one other point that I would make is:

  Entertainment is based on the PERCEPTION of the individual.

This means that if I look at a given game and see socialization,
then I will be drawn to that game or not based on whether I have
enough socialization in my life.  If I look at a game and see
exploration, then I will be drawn to that game or not based on
whether I have enough exploration in my life.  The game may have
been structured to present a killing spree, but if the perception by
players is that it's a great exploration game, then explorers will
end up playing the game.  Certainly we've seen enough cases where
players play a game in a way that the designers hadn't forseen for
this to be accepted as true.

There are any number of other factors involved in the selection of
entertainment, of course.  The cost of entry is one.  If it requires
a trip to the local shopping mall in order to get into a simulator
in order for me to get that perceived sense of stimulus, that may be
too great a barrier for me.  Charging somebody a dollar a minute may
be too great a barrier as well.  But as early experiments with
online MUDs demonstrated, some people REALLY wanted certain stimuli
and they were willing to hand over significant cash because of the
lack of desired stimulus - or the excess of cash.  The format is
another factor.  Online games present NO perception of a stimulus to
many people.  The keyboard is a huge barrier to many socializers.
And so on.

This is what many of our discussions about potential player bases
are really revolving around: how do we come up with the right
stimuli to attract the largest number of people?  What are the
stimuli that attract women?  What are the stimuli that attract
Americans?  Canadians?  etc.  Pick a demographic group and consider
what it is that they don't get enough of in their lives and that is
really part of their nature.

Just some food for thought.

JB

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