Brand Loyalty (was Re: [MUD-Dev] Requirements for MM(wasCompl exities of MMOG Servers))

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

From: Damion Schubert [mailto:damion at zenofdesign.com] 

> 'Powergaming' is merely a moderately derogatory way of saying
> 'optimizing one's play experience'.  For many, many people, its
> not just one way of playing games, its _how_ you play games.  Its
> _much_ more mass market than its purported MMP opposite
> roleplaying.

Its often contended that roleplaying is ruined by power gamers, but
not vice versa. I'm not convinced this is true. If one accepts that
roleplaying mandates the sacrifice of 'optimising one's play
experience' when it conflicts with roleplay, then roleplayers are by
extension less effective players of the underlying game. For a
powergamer, being saddled in a group with roleplayers is probably
just as frustrating as the inverse. He may not appreciate that
everyone is roleplaying the corpse recovery beautifully ;)

This list often seems to concentrate on the polarized extremes of
these play styles, but I've yet to see much evidence that people
really play that way.  Even when I was in an EQ powergaming guild,
we still indulged in light roleplay when it wasn't an obstruction to
effective play.

Dan
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