[MUD-Dev] Meta-games (not META list ;))

[Mark Cheverton]

On Tue, 2003-09-16 at 09:42, ceo wrote:

> OTOH, there are clearly people who are happy in such an
> environment. For instance, There. Simple because of it's critical
> mass (mainly from it's first-mover advantage) it becomes more
> attractive - several of the questions above are answered
> positively because it now has a gravity of it's own in attracting
> and retaining players. But when there's another couple of There's,
> they'll quickly turn into chatrooms as far as *I* am concerned:
> entered and exited on a whim. And pretty boring to stay in any
> particular one for a long time.

In some respects a chat room is a game. Many people are 'playing' a
persona with their own objectives (to be liked, to be hated, to be
venerated). Often the mechanics of the system will become games (IRC
for example; take over a channel, get ops, kick users, circumvent
bans).  Often I've been in a chat room where games spontaneously
fill the time - guess the movie from the quote for example. Not to
mention when programmers get involved - jeopardy, spectating FPS's
and (god help us) magic eight ball on IRC.

In the online multiplayer arena the most important factor is your
interaction with others. In many respects the rules of the game are
secondary. Many online games (take Planetarion for instance) are
extremely simple, but are popular for the community, the diplomacy
and the role playing - the interaction is primary. I'd be careful
about dismissing chatrooms as not important, they are in my mind
very similar to games in their purposes, use and mechanics,
supplying what people want but coming at it from the community side
first rather than the game mechanics, often with the result that the
users have more freedom and possibilities than in a game centred
system.

-Mark
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