[MUD-Dev] Playing catch-up with levels

[Byron Ellacott]

On Wed, 2004-04-28 at 03:24, Steven King wrote:
> Travis Nixon wrote:

>> Some players just hate it when you hide so much that they have no
>> control.

> Yeah, this thought also entered my mind as I was writing.  A
> friend of mine plays AO with spreadsheets, a calculator, about 15
> webpages, and skill/item programs just to keep track of what he's
> doing.  While this is fun for him (6-8 hours a weekday and 18-30
> hours a weekend, geez), it wouldn't translate very well into a
> hidden-mechanic system.  I can definately see a use for some kind
> of gauge to show the player his progress, but including
> measurements, I believe, leads to grinding.  IMO, the point is to
> play the game, not the system.

I'm leaning more to the belief that grinding is a result of having
levels of power.  You have the situation the subject line says,
playing catch-up with levels.  You also have the problem of
producing sufficient content for all the bands of ability.  Since
it's impractical to produce quality content for 50, 25 or even 10
bands of ability, content tends to be high end, which means people
tend to grind to reach the content.

Showing the progress means the grinding is more tolerable, since
even if you do not advance in one day, you can clearly see that
you've made progress.

--
bje
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