[MUD-Dev] Blacksnow revisted

[Damion Schubert]

From: Matt Mihaly
> On Mon, 29 Apr 2002 Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com wrote:
>> From: Matt Mihaly [mailto:the_logos at achaea.com]

>>> "Buying items with time also does very little if anything to
>>> foster any sort of community in the game."

>> Now thats a real stretch. If people are in game for longer, there
>> a greater likelyhood that they will interacting with other
>> players and creating community.
 
> That assumes all sorts of other things about the games' design. In
> the simplest case, where time is directly tied to advancement, a
> character simply being in the game, doing nothing, does nothing to
> create community. In Everquest, where time is indirectly tied to
> advancement, simply being in the game also does not advance
> community. Time provides the opportunity for more interaction, but
> I don't believe that simply equating time spent interacting with
> strength of community is valid.

I've agreed with Matt pretty much all the way down the stretch.  The
one thing I'd like to add is that people should always remember the
value of the community in the player's eyes.  Yes, the community is
one reason why players join the game, but many players do not think
that it weakens the community for them to short-circuit the gameplay
experience.  Certainly, enough other players are following the rules
that there is a nice stable community for them to plug into.

Going a step beyond that leads you right to Matt's point.  Players
who are buying accounts are buying them to some degree because they
want to fit into the community, but are marginalized because they
lack the time to play insane hours.  By buying a character, they can
become instant contributors with other high level players, and feel
important.

--d
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