[MUD-Dev] Expected value and standard deviation.

[Paul Schwanz]

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

>> 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.

Careful here, or one might start asking why hundreds of thousands of
players are not playing Achaea and conclude that it must be a boring
game.  I think it is just as conceivable that lots of players may
play a boring game as it is that few players may play an interesting
one.

--Phin
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