[MUD-Dev] 3rd Axis for Bartle's 2 axis theory of MUD players

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

"Richard A. Bartle" <richard at mud.co.uk> writes:

> complex. Immersion is more a facet of player development than
> their style of play. The 'classic' progression through the HCDS
> player types is: killer to explorer to achiever to socialiser.
> This matches the increasing immersion of the player in the virtual
> world. Adding immersion as a third dimension is a little odd in
> this context, as it's non-orthogonal.

Great, something I can totally disagree with!! >;}

First of all, why do you see K->E->A->S as the classic progression?
For a player with singleplayer game experience entering a typical
RPG MUD I would rather assume something like EAKSEA, but this really
depends on the games you have experience and the MUD you
enter... (KEAS might be right for UO, but probably not for AO/EQ)
For a nongamer I would assume SEA...

That was the small disagreement, then the big one. Why do you assume
that immersion is increasing! In my view it is quite the opposite,
it is consistently decreasing. Then people leave... Players are most
excited the first few weeks, right? The world is alive, because you
don't see the limits yet. I.e. you can believe in the mountain,
because you don't yet know that it is irrelevant. You don't
understand the underlying mechanics of the world, thus you don't
know the limits of what is possible etc. Same thing with people, you
still hope to find lots and lots of interesting people. After a few
weeks you realize that they are not there (hehe). Remember that
immersion (Flow) is related to the belief that you can control and
influence your success (desired progress/experience whatever) by
focusing.

That said. Immersion is largely related to a session, and less so to
the lifespan.

> Suffice to say, though, that the essence of your extra dimension -
> the degree of immersion - is a consequence of progression through
> the different player types (well, in my theory it is - I could
> well be wrong!). You have the right idea, but the wrong
> implementation.

Hmm...

--
Ola - http://folk.uio.no/olag/

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