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

[Chanur Silvarian]

Amanda Walker <amanda at alfar.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday, September 17, 2003, at 06:25 PM, Chanur Silvarian
> wrote:

> Which brings up another point: many people view MMORPGs as a venue
> for competition with other players.  Comparing character stats,
> trash talking in pvp, etc. are all directly analgous to what fans
> and players do with sports.  Sports are, alas, the great American
> metaphor.

> To those of us who view MMO worlds as, say, artistic mediums,
> social venues, interactive fiction, etc., keeping score may be
> fairly pointless, but as long as there are sport-like aspects to a
> game, the people who like that aspect will keep score by whatever
> means is available.

You are absolutely correct, "people have created approximations" and
"if simple metrics aren't available, people will make them up on
their own".  Just as you said "any competitor in any arena will find
a way to track progress" and "people who like that aspect will keep
score by whatever means is available."  I've been saying exactly the
same thing... they will make up their own.  So, if they are going to
come up with their own tracking system anyway why do we need to
shove the almighty experience point onto them?

The generally accepted methodology of making this a central focus of
the player's interface detracts from the game in multiple ways.  It
removes a lot of "achievements" that the achiever can achieve, like
being the first to figure out which is the better of two weapons.
It removes a lot of exploration that can be done by explorers
because there are not those little secrets to find.  It drives the
socializer to do more achieving which they may not enjoy (or they
may) because that number is always staring them in the face.  About
the only ones not affected by it are the killers, and for them it
doesn't matter one way or the other since a killer can kill
regardless of achievement, their only drive for achievement is so
that they can kill more people and/or kill more efficiently.
Finally, a group not represented by the bartle types (because they
can fall anywhere across all four) are the roleplayers.  Obviously
giving a completely "out of game" number as the measure of
advancement is harmful to roleplay.
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