[MUD-Dev] [BUS] Account-management systems

[Rayzam]

From: "ceo" <ceo at grexengine.com>

> On the one extreme, you can just declare each server as 100%
> independent of the others. This is quite easy, and sidesteps the
> issues of accounts and identities which span multiple servers. On
> the other, accounts and identities can be explicitly "global" in
> nature, so that if you see someone on server 123 called Bubba, you
> know it's the same person you've been competing against viciously
> on server 34 called Bubba (and this time around, he might be an
> ally).

> In the middle ground, you have the "human player --- game avatar"
> 2-level identity system, and variants thereof (e.g. 3-level
> system, with human player --- global avatar --- local avatar). In
> this case, some aspects of identity are local, some are global. On
> the whole, in-game you interact with other avatars using almost
> entirely local identity, but you are always (as a player) able to
> view the global-identity associated with a local-identity. This is
> generally used for making friendships, etc. And players have the
> option of building these relationships either locally, or
> globally, at their discretion.

One thing that comes to mind, albeit from a different starting point
than muds, is that there is an impact in gameplay too. That is, a
level of immersion/competition/ownership can be lost by having Bubba
be an ally on server 1, and an enemy on server2. Perhaps he's
neutral to you on server 3, even. Many competitive style games,
which I'm assuming a hardcoded 512 limit of local avatars is, I
could be wrong. But many competitive style games, are all about the
competition against other players. When you are beating Bubba in one
place, losing in another, and tying somewhere else simultaneously, a
feeling of futility or 'what's the point?' sets in. We humans tend
to average it all together. For the best players, they may be
winning against Bubba in 9 different servers. For many players,
there's regression to the mean. I assume, but without data, that
regression to the mean is a force for getting players to keep coming
back. If you've lost, play a few more games, and you'll win. If you
always lose, you'll stop playing, of course :)

So, there's an important aspect to keep in mind in terms of account
retention and player satisfaction. 2 of the 3 alternatives for
account management can account for this however. It just requires
keeping the local identities unique. Players should be given the
ability to pass on their global identity to others as they see fit,
though I wouldn't make the global identity available to everyone.

    rayzam
    www.travellingbard.com
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