[MUD-Dev] Better Communication [was: Better Combat]

[Michael Hartman]

cruise wrote:
> Michael Hartman wrote:

>> Crypic didn't send us our telepones and pay our phone bills. They
>> didn't set up your teamspeak server. Neither yours nor our method
>> of improving interaction are part of the game of CoH. Cryptic/CoH
>> do not get "credit" for this type of interaction.

> So what? :P

So don't give them credit for good game design if people have to use
external methods to inject even the tiniest bit of socialization
into the game. If people MUST use external means to have any
socialization, that is evidence of serious design flaws. Yet you
somehow give them credit for the fact that these methods can be used
to chat.

> My point was the communication problems are fundementally down to
> technical issues rather than actual design problems - deliberate
> downtimes to allow player communication being shoehorned into
> gameplay, just because technically we don't have a better method
> of communication than typing, doesn't strike me as a long term
> solution.

That is simply not the case. It is exceptionally easy to chat and
fight at the same time in text games that use a command line
interface (which is pretty much all of them). You are always typing
your commands into the exact same spot. You don't have to click
somewhere else or look somewhere else.

If what you say is true, there would not be a positive correlation
between downtime and socialization in MUDs.  However, the exact same
phenomenon takes place in text games. If you code in some reasonable
downtime, the amount of socialization increases. I'm not talking
about excessive downtime. I am talking about a few minutes out of
every hour of playtime.

> Cryptic made a damn fun game - and if I want communication, I go
> elsewhere.

I have said numerous times the game is fun. But for an MMORPG it is
an abysmal failure in many respects. Your statement speaks volumes:
"If I want communication, I go elsewhere."

If someone says that about an MMORPG, it has failed badly.

That's the kind of statement that should apply to single player
games or mostly SP games with non-monthly-fee multiplayer.

--
Michael Hartman
President and CEO, Threshold Virtual Environments, Inc.
http://www.thresholdrpg.com
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