[MUD-Dev] Re: MMO Communities

[Freeman, Jeff]

HRose wrote:

> The socialization must happen in the game. Not outside it.=20 The
> social interaction must be about the gameplay itself, not=20
> outside it. Downtimes are moments where the designer choose=20 to
> break the gameplay to offer a space. This space is empty=20 to be
> filled with socialization. Is a break for the game. I=20 think,
> instead, that the socialization must be brought back=20 to the
> gameplay. Because I'm sure it's able to provide a lot=20 of *fun*
> Instead of hindering it.

Well, I guess this is why I think of it as "pacing" rather than
downtime.  You probably don't want people to be able to chat during
combat, because it means your combat doesn't require much attention
on the part of the player.  SO you want that to be fast-paced.  But
there have to be between-combat times that allow for some
communication.  Likewise for crafting, I suppose, though you can
always throw in a "Now wait a few seconds for it to bake"-sort of
delay.  Crafting can be complex and slow-paced, I don't think people
are doing it for the excitement.

I like some travel time because without it the world seems small,
but people ought to be able to chat while travelling.  That's a good
time for it.  As a personal preference, I don't even mind riding on
an automated vehicle/mount/whatever (or for that matter
auto-running) and chatting as I go, but oddly, I do get impatient
just standing around waiting to go somewhere, especially if it's a
30-minute "trip" instead of, say, 5 minutes or so.

I think some things should be deliberately obtuse so as to require
some players to figure it out, and other players to ask those
players how it works.  That's a tough-sell, generally.  The rest of
the team will tell me I'm nuts if I say we ought to deliberately
make something counter-intuitive and/or user-unfriendly.

For example, an imaginary healing system:

  The doctor must diagnose the patient.  The system tells the doctor
  (not the patient) what the patient must do in order to be
  diagnosed further (raise your arms... then, remove your
  shirt... and for the final diagnoses, now turn your head and
  cough), etc.  There's a pause between each diagnostic attempt
  while the doctor waits for the instruction (and the patient waits
  for the doctor).  Just a few seconds, enough to play an animation
  and to chat a line or two.  Having complied with the Doctor's
  orders, the diagnosis is delivered to the doctor: this patient
  needs a shot of liborundacraniforium-97 and a drink of
  windshieldwiper-fluid.  The doctor administers the shot, hands the
  patient a glass of fluid and tells him to drink it.  The patient
  does, and tada! his wounds are healed!

It would be more efficient/user-friendly for the system to tell the
patient what the patient needs to do, and more efficient for the
doctor to just "use" the fluid on the patient.

But I think it's better they're forced to talk to each other, and
the whole procedure is "paced" so as to afford them the opportunity
to chat more beyond that, too.

Oh, and this sort of thing is also a tough-sell because it's kind of
creepy.
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev