[MUD-Dev] Blacksnow revisted

[Matt Mihaly]

On Thu, 2 May 2002, Ron Gabbard wrote:
> From: "Matt Mihaly" <the_logos at achaea.com>
 
>> 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.

> A player that spends 30 played days playing their characters to
> the higher levels will always have added more to the 'society' of
> the game than the player that buys a high level character.  A game
> that allows a player to raise a character to eBay levels with eBay
> gear without contibuting to the world's society is a pretty poor
> design (IMO) for a MUD.

But you're wrong insofar as it does contribute to the welfare of the
society. It makes the individuals in the society happier, as both
sides of the transaction are getting what they want. It helps keep
some members that would otherwise leave or not bother beginning.

It's really dependent on the game design too. A game could easily be
designed where getting to higher levels doesn't inherently do
anything to help the society. For instance, solo spawned missions
where you are never required to interact with anyone else. Time does
nothing. Interaction is what matters and insofar as that's true, it
could be argued that since an Ebay buy/sell is an interaction
(however trivial), it at least inherently does SOMETHING to
encourage community.

--matt



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