[MUD-Dev] ghost mode

[Rayzam]

From: <Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com>
> From: Rayzam [mailto:rayzam at travellingbard.com]

>> Actually, it's give them a chance and most will leave to other
>> games around that are easier/faster to power/whatnot. Some will
>> stay and learn, and appreciate the experience.

>> And I'm talking empirically. Retromud is by no means
>> easy. However, we do make things easier for newbies and
>> complexity gets added in stages.  Still, we see many new players,
>> a lot of whom quit vocally on channels because its too
>> complicated, its not easy enough, why can't I just start killing
>> something and have the game just keep casting the same spell
>> until its dead like in other games.  Players tell these new
>> players to try to stick it out. They call it 'the graduate school
>> of mudding'. The new players can learn if they put the time
>> in. Then the new players reply, why bother, I'll just go
>> somewhere else.

>> Yep, about 8 out of 10 ignore the chance.  Granted, this is in
>> the text mud world, where there are many muds to choose from. As
>> there are more graphical games, I predict the same will occur as
>> there are more choices there too. Frankly, we may have hit that
>> point already.

> Well that's missing the point a tad. My argument would be that
> there should be the means to cast the same boring fireball again
> and again if they want.  At the same time, there ought to be the
> option to do more advanced tactics and earn greater success. You
> can't throw it all at them at once, so if that really was feedback
> from players surely you now go and work out how to give them that,
> but at less than optimal effectiveness.

Sure, they can cast the same boring fireball over and over
again. What I meant to describe was a player who didn't want
options, nor the ability to use tactics. And that's a whole
different beast.

    - we don't throw complexity at them all at once. In fact, it is
    gradiated over the first 20 levels, the newbie levels.

    - we have advanced tactics.

    - advanced tactics results in creating content that can be
    accessed via those tactics

    - this results in some players saying such-and-such area/monster
    is 'Impossible'.

    - other players who don't just use a tank up front, blasters
    blasting, and a healer/buffer do said impossible feat.

    I like those players. I like having options. But from what I've
    seen, there are people who don't. And for those people, there
    are many alternative places to play at, without them having to
    learn tactics.

It's like chess. There are simple ways of playing, and there are
advanced tactics. Almost anyone can play chess when the rules are
explained.  Many people don't want to learn how to play it at an
advanced level.  But they may enjoy playing against others at their
same level of ability [tactics]. So they go play the games that they
enjoy. There are people I won't play tennis with, because it isn't
fun for either of us.

What do you do about feedback or acquiring players that want a
simpler experience? We're back to having the game work at different
difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane, from a different
thread. Not many people want to play a game where they aren't
competing at least somewhat evenly.  Unless, they're learning or
want to improve.

As long as there are achievers and ways of comparing players,
players will play games at their level of ability or lower,
preferably lower. It's just another way of restating that players
will take the easiest path to the cheese. Why run an 8-radial-arm
maze when you could run a T-maze?  There are many games that are fun
without being difficult or deep, and that appeals to a larger part
of the population. Those that get bored, move to a different game,
rinse, repeat :)

> I think with a text mud your interface will inhibit you
> though. Learning commands is just harder than a well thought out
> gui and theres not a lot you can do about that.

Digression: GUIs are interesting beasts. The more options you have,
the harder it is to work out an intuitive and usable GUI. I've read
that Temple of Elemental Evil uses radial menus like the ones that
work really well in SWG. However, ToEE has all the options of AD&D
3.5, and many submenus that makes it a bear to navigate. Text allows
for easier access to many options and commands. That's why all the
/commands still exist in the graphical games. I prefer a good gui,
but there are limitations to it that the text interface doesn't
have.

> Anyway if retromud was a graphical game, I'd be there like a
> shot. Sounds just my cup of tea. Sadly I've never really liked
> text games (which is odd given how much I read).

Heh. I wonder what the correlation is between those who read for
pleasure and those who enjoy text games?

That aside, if we were a graphical game, we'd love to have ya :) The
corrolary to my original statement of 8 out of 10 move along, is
that the remaining 2 out of 10 are more desirable for our community
aspect.

    rayzam
    www.travellingbard.com
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev