[MUD-Dev] DGN: Why give the players all the numbers?

[Mike Shaver]

On Sep 15, Derek Licciardi wrote:

> The whole underlying idea that the designer gets to choose what I
> know and don't know about the virtual world I inhabit is what
> strikes me wrong about the statement.

I find that surprising.  I think the vast majority of virtual
worlds, and especially those with combat elements, hide information
from the players.  Common examples would include the health and
inventory of other players or NPCs, or "special" vulnerabilities,
just for starters.

And it's not that the designers couldn't send that data out to the
player, after all.  I think it's an example of what others have said
in this thread: the game can be made more immersive (and exciting,
perhaps) if the player is more involved in exploration of the
characteristics of the world.  You can find out how tough that
dragon is, but someone's going to have to do it the hard way.  (And
that person may or may not talk about it, depending.)

I think it's even an improvement if the player goes some fan site to
find out a mostly-accurate description of the Greater Mumblethump's
stats from another player's work, because even then there's a
player/player interaction happening, and it strengthens the player's
bond with the world.

I have another axe to grind with respect to the idea of reifying
many kinds of in-game information, so that they can be traded and
the game systems can react to them.  You've fought against a lot of
Krozal Warriors?  You get a bonus against them, and you can maybe
even teach others some portion of your bonus through some mechanism.
I think the two are related, but I'll stop now to avoid hijacking
this specific discussion (which I find quite interesting).

Mike
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