[MUD-Dev] Powergaming (was Star Wars Galaxies: 1 character per server)

[Damion Schubert]

>From Kwon Ekstrom

> I agree that powergaming is fun (being a powergamer myself), and
> as an admin I like to encourage it, while making it difficult.
> It's nice to see someone who shares that viewpoint on this list,
> it seems lately that everyone is aiming toward perfect balance and
> catering toward the casual players.  There is alot of fun to be
> had with equal but unbalanced powers.  There should be no single
> "do this and you win" set, but there should be plenty of
> opportunities for a smart player to use knowledge and skill to
> rise above the "average" player.

I think my current obstinance on the matter comes from watching too
many recent games who think that "Easy" is equivalent to "Fun" in
the eyes of the mass market.  "Easy" is in fact, one step away from
"boring".  The most addictive non-MMP games, on the other hand, make
the player feel either clever (Civ, Solitaire, Myst) or talented
(Quake, Tetris).

The casual gamer likes to powergame too.  It's just that infinite,
unbounded treadmills gives the 13-year old munchkin with too much
time on his hands an unsurmountable head start, which ends up being
discouraging.

--d



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