[MUD-Dev] Requirements for MM (was Complexities ofMMOGServers)

[ceo at grexengine.com]

on Mon, Dec 16, 2002 at 04:31:55PM -0800, Brian Hook wrote:

> I'll just chime in here.
 
> I've mentally subdivided multiplayer into (unfortunately)
> different "M" classes, differentiated relative order of magnitude:
 
>   1 player = single player
>   1-10 players = minorly player
>   11-100 players = moderately multiplayer
>   100+ players = majorly multiplayer
>   1000+ players = massively multiplayer
>

Howabout: (number refer to numbers of people simultneously playing
in a shared copy of the game)

  1 = single-player
  1-30 = single-arena 
  30-2000 = internet multiplayer
  2000+ = massively mutiplayer

...based on the nature of the games:

  - 1-30 player games take place in restricted small gaming arenas /
  dungeons / fields / etc
 
  - 30-2000 player games are the smallest that *require* the
  internet to be played effectively

  - 2000 players causes many headaches - what works for an
  internet-multiplayer game generally doesn't scale beyond (or as
  far as) 2000 simultaneous players - neither in technology,
  hardware, customer-support, content nor gameplay.

30-2000 is a good chunk if you don't have any need to constantly
differentiate e.g. popular MUDs from semi-popular ones. AFAICS, the
gameplay is much more homogeneous between different MUDs (and with
the few arcade-style internet multiplayer games around than it is
with singe-arena (e.g. Quake) games, or MM games.

I'd prefer in an ideal world to say 30+ players was the limit,
because the main reasons for specifying the 2000+ limit are
implementation issues, and their indirect effect on the end gameplay
- but the issues are so staggeringly important, and have such a huge
effect by the way they change in the 1000-5000 border, that I
(personally, given where my career lies) have to make the
distinction, and find it useful.

Adam M

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