[MUD-Dev] Expected value and standard deviation.

[Matt Mihaly]

On Fri, 5 Sep 2003, Katie Lukas wrote:
> Matt Mihaly wrote:

>> Well, I don't see how it affects you as a player. If you're not
>> interested in the 'boring' (I have a problem with that word since
>> it means something different to everybody. What's boring to you
>> may be fun to me.) part of the gameplay, just don't play that
>> part of it.

> First, I must say that I'm not just responding as a player.  But
> even regardless of that fact, my initial email was positing two
> statements, namely, that player definitions of "boring" actually
> tend to be fairly consistent (repetitive actions and obvious
> outcomes - largely interpreted in MUDs and MOGs as the level grind
> and imbalance), and, that there is not enough variation in the
> ways to play existing games to *provide* the options to begin
> with.  It affects me as a player, however, by making the games
> that are available to me less good (often by a lot) than I,
> personally, believe they could be.  Perhaps you would propose that
> I play ten different games to serve ten different personal
> playstyles - to that I would respond that that idea is
> fundamentally contrary to the ideas behind developing MUDs.

I'm often unsure how to look at the activities in muds that players
claim are boring. If the level grind is so boring why are hundreds
of thousands of players paying to engage in it? Is it actually
boring or does it just not fit their preconceived idea of what is
fun for them? I tend to believe that a person's actions say more
about what that person wants/likes more than what they say they
like.

> I am absolutely a believer in the one-man's-meat concept, which is
> why I am so focused on providing player choice to begin with.
> While I do think that the idea of boring remains, at least in the
> abstract sense, pretty consistent, I also strongly believe that
> games as complex as MUDs and MOGs need to start looking at
> providing a variety of choices within the same game, and that, in
> fact, the alternative to doing so is to face a larger number of
> niche-oriented games that each have minimal market share, as
> opposed to several deep *and* broad games that can serve a number
> of different player needs.

Lots of muds already do that.

The problem with several games is that there's no way they can
satisfy everyone's desires. Some desires are in strong contradiction
to each other: I may require a world in which there is Open PK 100%
of the time and refuse to put up with OOC restrictions on PK. You
may see this as a ridiculous request and refuse to play in a world
in which you're not protected from bullies at least some of the
time. You may require a world that is true to the Star Wars or
Tolkien theme. I may insist on a world that is true to Dragonball
Z. You may insist on a world in which roleplaying is heavily
enforced. I may insist on a world in which I am free to chat about
last night's Seinfeld rerun.

--matt
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