[MUD-Dev] Thought Experiment: Permanent Monster Death

[Paul Schwanz]

Brent P. Newhall wrote:

> After reading the massive -- and fascinating -- thread on
> entertainment, spawning, etc. in games, I had the following
> thought.  Would love to know what you all think.

>   What would a game look like, if monsters stayed dead?  E.g.,
>   monsters can only be added to the game if the admins explicitly
>   add them.

In most current MMORPGs (all of them?) monsters are a resource more
than anything else.  With this approach, limiting monsters is akin
to limiting content.  Most gamers seem to want more content, not
less.

I don't think it is a good idea to limit monsters in this way
*unless* you shift the focus of content to some other area
(eg. perhaps the MMORPG is more about building things than killing
things) and monsters then become creatures you try to avoid or
otherwise overcome instead of creatures you seek out to farm or
harvest.  Even then, I don't think I'd want to depend on explicit
admin creation since I think such an approach could be resource and
time intensive.  I think there are interesting ways to introduce
creatures into a game world other than through static spawning or
even through random spawning without discernable patterns.

For example:

  http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/2002Q2/msg00941.php

--Phin
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