[MUD-Dev] Playing catch-up with levels

[Craig Huber]

From: "Amanda Walker" <amanda at alfar.com>
> On Apr 18, 2004, at 7:28 PM, Byron Ellacott wrote:

>> Of course, that still leaves the problem of how to deal with
>> Candice joining your game two months after her good friends Alice
>> and Bob: can Candice meaningfully play with Alice and Bob?

> In most currently available MMORPGs, the answer is "no, not without
> special effort on Alice and Bob's part."  This means that referrals
> actually end up having a negative incentive.

Long time lurker, here... please excuse me for jumping in, but there is a
question I've wanted to ask for a while, and never quite gotten around to.

The difficulties of translating/mutating the d20/D+D mechanics to a
populous, diverse, unmoderated setting like an MMOG are fairly well known
and, if I might be so bold, somewhat obvious... at least, to anyone who
"wasted" excessive portions of their youth playing the game (like me :-) ).

My question is, why does the vast majority keep circling back to the
class/level/hp paradigm in spite of the aforementioned obstacles?  Is it a
case of "Better the devil you know..."?  Is there a sense that there are no
other titles/paradigms that have merit?  Is there evidence, anecdotal or
otherwise, that D+D's hallmarks of narrowly defined roles and geometric (if
not exponential) power growth are "what the typical player wants"?

I am curious because I see other potential models on my own bookshelf which
could be drawn upon for inspiration, but I only rarely see much indication
of any attempt to do so (Raph Koster's endeavors being the most notable
"massive" exceptions that come to mind... there are several MUDs of note out
there as well, of course.)

I don't mean to sound strident, please forgive me if I do.  I must confess
that there is an element of disappointment driving the question above,
however.  As a friend of mine teased the other day, I guess I keep hoping
someone will channel inspiration from that neighboring alternate timeline
where Gygax and Co. decided that there really wasn't much money to be made
in RP after the Greyhawk supplements, and titles like Traveller and
RuneQuest went on to dominate the genre instead.

My thanks in advance for your feedback...
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