[MUD-Dev] In defense of "soloability" [was Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility]

[Matt Mihaly]

On Sun, 2 Jun 2002, Ron Gabbard wrote:

> I suspect that many issues that drive the angst behind grouping
> will lessen in severity as games migrate to 'player-driven'
> worlds.  Many of the issues caused by the gap between how the
> designer intended the players to play the game and how the players
> actually play the game are lessened/removed when you give the
> players a sandbox versus building them a sandcastle... tools not
> rules.

Most players don't have the imagination to entertain themselves in
the sandbox. I used to be a sandbox elitist, but through running
Achaea for the last 5 years, my views have been altered by watching
the entropy that sets in if you just hand them tools and expect them
to entertain themselves.

They need tools, they need rules, and they need admin intervention
to keep things interesting. (My definition of interesting goes
beyond bashing monsters, but I realize a lot of people's doesn't, so
perhaps the last isn't required for monster-bashing games.)

--matt

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