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

[Sheela Caur'Lir]

From: "Matt Mihaly"
> On Fri, 19 Sep 2003 Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com wrote:
>> From: Matt Mihaly [mailto:the_logos at ironrealms.com]

>>>> I learned that from a few weeks of playtime on Achaea, making
>>>> only casual and social observations.  Sure, this information
>>>> isn't on websites everywhere, but it is rather easy to obtain
>>>> for oneself. Someone actually dedicated to discovering the
>>>> details would have much of this knowledge within the same
>>>> amount of time.

>>> I'm not saying no information is obtainable. I'm just saying
>>> that the people who claim that there's no point in hiding
>>> numbers because numbers will be easily available via reference
>>> material on websites or whatnot are expressing a degree of
>>> cynicism not warranted by the experience of most muds.

>> True, but I'd be confident in asserting that it is a matter of
>> scale combined with the nature of your players.

>> Mana regeneration rate is hidden in EQ, but it didn't take long
>> for people to turn a packet sniffer on it and work it out, same
>> for vaious hidden armor protection caps etc. It all got worked
>> out, and in fairly fast order. Of course all these things are
>> good imho, it keeps the devs honest and sometimes unearths
>> discrepancies between how the devs think they've implemented it,
>> and how its actually working.

> Yeah, but there are thousands of muds out there and a handful of
> EQ's. I'm not willing to make universal rules based on the
> experience of a handful of games.

With all respect to text MUDs, but I think EQ alone have had almost
as many players alone as almost all the text MUDs combined.

I would certainly not call them just a "handful of gamers" and
dismiss them as nothing - Especially when considering that EQ have
some of the most hardcore style players.

However they do show a trend, I think :

  - If a MUD (text or graphic) manages to get a big enough
  playerbase, there will be players calculating formulas on things
  you didn't supply them a formula for, since there will then be a
  big enough mix of explorers / achievers that there is a "need" for
  them to know what is realy going on. Mostly because they have
  figured out all the rest and thirsts for new things to do.

It almost goes along with :

  - If it's a graphical MUD, people will manage to get to the
  darnedest places.  Like, Over the world, under the world and into
  attics or basements of buildings which have no entrances or exits
  whatsoever.

I would say one should expect the unexpected when you develop your
MMOG.  They *will* manage to surprise you.  Repeatedly.  Often.

---
Jens L. Nielsen
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