[MUD-Dev] Better Combat

[John Buehler]

Douglas Goodall writes:
> David Kennerly wrote:

>> Downtime exists when and only when a system forces a user to
>> remain idle, because the system disables all desired operations.
>> Thus waiting a significant amount of time (say a couple minutes
>> or more?)  for a carriage is downtime (if travel is the only
>> current desire); waiting for health to recharge is downtime (if
>> health is required to competently play).  Choosing to wait for an
>> enemy to enter a trap before attacking it is a passive tactic.
>> Baiting is a user's choice; so it is not downtime.

> This is what I've been meaning when I refer to downtime. Voluntary
> delays (waiting to strike; setting an ambush; voluntary delays
> between combat to drink potions, choose targets, discuss tactics,
> and get into position) do not offend me. Involuntary delays
> (waiting for an uncontrollable spaceship, riding a slow horse,
> sitting and watching colored bars move up and down) that are
> unavoidable every time I want to accomplish a goal (go from point
> A to point B, fight mobs) are subscription breakers for me.

> I wouldn't put a limit of "a couple minutes" on the amount of time
> before it becomes downtime. For me, it becomes downtime as soon as
> I notice it, which is single-digit seconds in most cases.

I agree with the implicit observation that downtime is a subjective
thing.  When a player isn't doing something with the game and they
want to be doing something, it's not fun.  We can call it downtime,
anticipation, cognitive delay or anything else we care to, but it
boils down to the fact that some number of players don't enjoy
certain periods of inactivity in certain games.

Even if the inactivity is part of a larger game experience, if the
inactivity is bothersome, it's a deficient structure for
entertaining players.  It may be entirely necessary for a certain
fiction to be maintained, but that doesn't mean that it's fun.  If a
certain context calls for inactivity at a certain point, and the
inactivity is never noticed, then that is a more effective structure
for entertaining players.

Everything that I've just said about inactivity is true of activity
as well.  If the player is obligated to perform a certain set of
actions that they're really not interested in doing, then the
entertainment is deficient.  It may be the best that anyone has come
up with to date, and make piles of money for the publisher, but it's
still deficient.

In time, designers will come to understand how to avoid compulsory
activity and compulsory inactivity that just doesn't fit with the
entertainment experience of the game.  Disney did this sort of thing
with their elaborate animated displays for customers waiting in line
for rides.  I'm not suggesting for a moment that there should be
anything so simpleminded for players who are forced to let their
players rest in order to recover magical power. I'm only saying that
ultimately Douglas's observation is the most telling - don't let the
players notice the fact that they are inactive (or active in a way
that they don't care to be).

JB
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