[MUD-Dev] Myst Online article at ferrago.co.uk

[Ted L. Chen]

shren writes:

> A momentary thought - I wonder if you can prevent the rate of mass
> publication of game secrets by not giving anything a name.  Don't
> name places, don't name items, don't give out coordinates to
> players.  Common names for things are critical for communication.

If a place / secret is interesting enough, people will name it
whatever they want (for lack of any official names).  It reminds me
of a little club in AO that was tucked away in the shanty towns
outside a main city.  Most clubs in AO display a prominent sign with
the name on it.  This one didn't and only had something telling
patrons to just "relax".  Weirdly, enough people started to visit it
and called it the Dancing Atrox (possibly in reference to its funky
dancefloor).  Now, it's widely referred to as the "Dancing Atrox"
although no official name was ever given.  Not to long ago, the devs
threw in an actual dancing atrox just to cement the name.

So players will figure to call it something instead of some set of
coordinates.  "Hey, I'll meet you at the Dancing Atrox" is much
easier to write and informative than "Hey, I'll meet you at
358x345".

TLC


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