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

[cruise]

Michael Hartman wrote:
> 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.

No, it's evidence of a seriously /different/ design goal. The
intention is obviously to keep players constantly playing. And it is
/that/ that I give them credit for.

>> 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.

Then why do these games need to add downtime if it's so easy?

>> 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."

Okay, let me rephrase that. "If I want communication that doesn't
hinder my gameplay, I go elsewhere." I've never had a problem
getting a team when I needed one, I've seen RP and socialising
frequently. I can get that any time I choose. Almost all the time,
however, I enjoy playing the game more.

> 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.

No, because then I don't have the choice. For me, games are
/entirely/ about choices and decisions. Forcing me to socialise (or
at least to stop playing with downtime), or preventing me from doing
so (with a single-player game), defeats that.

I think this is simply another example of people wanting very
different things from their games :P

--
[ cruise / casual-tempest.net / transference.org ]
   "quantam sufficit"
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