[MUD-Dev] Expected value and standard deviation.

[Paul Schwanz]

Jeff Cole wrote:
> From: Koster, Raph

>> Most likely, this path is NOT one designed intentionally by the
>> designer.  It's one that players find by manipulating the system.

> This is where I think you are either wrong or in denial.  I think
> the design is very much intentional--if only because designers
> can't create content as quickly as players can devour it.  It is a
> problem made geometrically (exponentially?) worse by the extreme
> domain of power for the range of levels.

You cannot hit a nail more squarely than that!  ;) A player's drive
to advance (as rewarded by the game) is only part of the reality
that leads to boring games.  The other part of that reality has to
do with deliberately streching out limited content over time and the
need to do so to recoup the cost of providing that content.  Sasha
Hart touched on this in the thread regarding addictive gameplay a
while back.  Sometimes it isn't so much that the gameplay required
for advancement isn't fun, but that the fun parts are stretched to
the breaking point so that you have minutes of fun spread out over
hours of gameplay and, of course, months of subscription fees.
Again, moving the focus of a game toward player-created content its
many forms (competition, cooperation, construction, conversation,
etc.) would seem to relieve some of the pressure to use time sinks
to stretch out developer content, thus resulting in a less boring
game.

--Phin
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