[MUD-Dev] Player malleable worlds (was Expected value and sta ndard deviation)

[Matt Mihaly]

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com wrote:
> From: Crosbie Fitch [mailto:crosbie at cyberspaceengineers.org]

>> Sometimes it may be enough to dig a hole in the ground fill it
>> with sand, and let the kids create the cities with their buckets
>> and spades. A dog poo and sweet wrapper elimination service will
>> cost extra - naturally. You don't always have to spend years
>> creating content, if the players are easily able to do that
>> themselves.

> Oh come off it, the average player is utterly incapable of
> creating content anyone but their mum would be interested in. Even
> professionals frequently get it wrong.

> Enough hand waving, someone show me some compelling auto generated
> content, or compelling player generated content in a commercially
> viable game.

My level of agreement with you runs at about 95% on this subject,
Daniel, but I can show you popular player-generated content in all
of our games. Now, it's not of the "create an area for other players
to hack n' slash through" but that's just one kind of content. For
instance:

  - Housing. Players can completely customize their houses. Change
  exits, write whatever descriptions they want, etc.

  - Tailoring. Tailors make most of Achaea's clothing. They start
  with various types of patterns (a pattern for a hat, a pattern for
  trousers, etc) and then they generate a completely custom
  pattern. The pattern is submitted for approval by admins and if
  approved the player can then make items of clothing based off the
  pattern. Gives a HUGE range of player clothing in the game.

  - Cooking. Allows players to create custom food items in a manner
  much like tailoring.

  - Masonry. Allows players to create custom statues, fountains, and
  other type of decorative stone items with an approval process like
  Tailoring.


--matt
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