[MUD-Dev] Morphable worlds, Reset based systems revisited

[Matt Mihaly]

On 1 Nov 2002, Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad wrote:
> Matt Mihaly <the_logos at achaea.com> writes:
 
>> All meaningful interaction is between players pretending to be
>> someone else. It's still between the players.
 
> Then you don't need a world.

No, you don't need a world. You don't NEED games period. However,
people do enjoy themed contexes within which to interact, from MUDs
to nightclubs.

 
>> And if you use power in the broader senses, a level playing field
>> is impossible, so why bother discussing it? Everyone is going to
>> have different levels of power of persuasion for instance, and
>> there's nothing you can do about that aside from removing all
>> interaction.
 
> Huh? Restructuring the world and having a surge of newbies will
> change the setting and hopefully "destabilize the power bases".

Why is destabilizing the power base a good thing? I guess I don't
understand that part of your argument. One of the goals of many
players in Achaea, for instance, is to become part of the power base
of one organization or another. Why would you want to say to them,
"We're going to yank your accomplishment away arbitrarily?" If
you're worried that once part of the power base, one is entrenched
in there and cannot be dislodged, don't be. It's basically
impossible to maintain power over an extended period of time without
making a good portion of your constituency happy. We do have one
guildmaster that has reigned over his guild for about 2 years now,
but that is an extremely rare exception. We've had power struggles
where the top position in a city-state changes hands weekly, though
that is equally rare.
 
>> Give up now. Some people are more competent than others
 
> ?

I just mean that a level playing field is impossible, because
everyone has different capabilities inherently.
 
>> The idea that all the other players move to that continent is a
>> bit wacky though. We introduce new areas all the time, and
>> players don't move there. That doesn't even make sense from a
>> human behavior perspective. Most people do not go live on the
>> frontier, away from public services, familiarity, and relative
>> safety.  > > Well, if they don't spend time there...

Sure they spend time there. They go there, adventure around, and
come home. Achaea's a bit different from the DIKU-style level
treadmill, insofar as most players don't spend anywhere near the
majority of their time mindlessly bashing monsters.
 
>> He didn't say you do. He said people do, and they do. We get lots
>> of players who leave to go check out the latest graphical
>> MUD. Many of them come back a couple months later, because Achaea
>> is their home.

> Matt, not to belittle your achievements, but Achaea doesn't have
> lots of players... Some people do. And I assume a small tight and
> stable community and unique world helps in that respect.
 
Oh, I'm well aware how small Achaea is, but Achaea is just one text
MUD out of thousands. Granted, most of them have almost NO players,
but I know from talking to other MUD admins that they experience the
same thing. At least in the text MUD world, there is a strong
impetus to have a "home MUD". You might go check out the latest
greatest, but it has to be one hell of a place to become your new
home. Hmm, actually, it seems to me that= the uber-guilds that have
arisen around Counterstrike, graphical MUDs, and so on kind of
fulfill the same purpose as the idea of a "home mud" insofar as they
provide a semi-stable community to hang in, etc.

Anyway, I wasn't claiming everyone does this, just that some people
do do it (and they do).

--matt


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