[MUD-Dev] UO Advanced Character Service

[Matt Mihaly]

On Fri, 20 Sep 2002, Jessica Mulligan wrote:

> You make a good point.  Or, as someone wrote on the BTH forums
> (http://forum.skotos.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=150486#post150486)
> tonight:
 
>   "I've never played UO, so my assessment might not be exactly
>   fair. But my first thought is that the game must not be very fun
>   if people are willing to pay to avoid playing it. "

Naah, it's just different strokes for different folks. Consider a
mountain that has a great view. To some, perhaps the view is the
only reward worth considering, and if they could just helicoptor it
to the top, they'd feel adequately rewarded. Other people (myself
for instance) would much rather hike the damn thing and make it my
bitch, and then enjoy the view.

A MUD-specific example could be Achaea's ratting-for-gold system,
which is, like just about all 'ratting systems' I've ever seen,,
really quite boring and a pretty crappy way of doing things that has
just never been replaced with something better. The other day
however, I got someone raving to me about how much fun he found it
(even after I asked him if he was really serious, as no one EVER
says that). Many players would, I'm sure, love to be able to avoid
the ratting, but apparently not everybody!

I think there are two principles at work here:

  1. There's no such thing as a Good Game in the eyes of the public
  generally. There are only games that some people like, and some
  people don't like, and within a game, features and experiences
  that some people enjoy, and others don't.

  2. Overcoming obstacles, even if that obstacle is 'boring' and
  repetitive, can add significant value to later experiences.

--matt










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