[MUD-Dev] ghost mode (was Re: SW:G)

[Amanda Walker]

Vladimir Cole <vladimir_cole at yahoo.com> wrote:

> But guidebooks make travel more *efficient* (especially the theme
> park guide books) and that's the problem with spoilers. They
> accelerate the advancement of subscribers through your available
> content, and that will increase subscriber churn.

Then you're building the wrong sorts of content.  If your content
isn't interesting enough to be worth experiencing more than once,
it's not really RPG content, it's a shoppping list updated every
month.  Note that this is indeed how many achiever players approach
it.  They get the patch notes, make their shopping lists, and race
to see who can get all the items first, since otherwise there's no
reason to experience the content.

> Ghost mode in Everquest would speed guild advancement at an
> incredible rate. Game encounters are designed with built-in wipes
> that help designers pace the consumption of content.

Indeed.  And I gave up on EQ after about 3 months because that pace
was way too slow for the aspects of content that interested me.
I've been playing There since January--it has no pre-scripted
content at all, and geography updates are paced quite slowly.  Draw
your own conclusions.

> Ghost mode would be devastating to top guilds because it would
> expose tactics and information that they had sole access to
> previously.

I'm sorry, I find this terribly funny.  "Secret knowledge" in a
game?  "Top guilds?"  This doesn't sound like a virtual world, it
sounds like high school cliques.

> Even in a game like There ghost mode could be detrimental if it
> obviated the need for jet packs, hoverboards, or other revenue
> generating toys.

There doesn't need it--you enter the game with enough in your
virtual wallet to pick up one of those toys if you want it (heck,
they gave away hoverboards to everyone at one point in the beta).
Once there, you can go anywhere.  Find someplace interesting, you
can teleport friends in, without worrying about what "level" they
are.

> Ghosts in There would have to be slow-moving and have their z-axis
> movement restricted.

Ghost mode (as I described it) already exists in There: it's called
the hoverpack .

> In Everquest, the list of ghost restrictions would have to be
> extreme in order to protect designer and player interests.

Perhaps, then, the content itself is structured to encourage "grind
through it so you can check it off your list" playstyles.  If you
structure your game around grinding for xp, it should not then be a
surprise when people do so.

Amanda Walker
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