[MUD-Dev] Do players enjoy farming? (was MUD-Dev Digest, Vol 7, Issue9)

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

From: Rayzam [mailto:rayzam at travellingbard.com]

> That assumes that monster farmers want to do those other
> activities. That the activity is the enjoyment. I think when
> players enjoy farming, its and ends and means thing. They like the
> end: more levels, abilities, spells, gold, whatnot. That lets them
> compare more favorably to other players, or beat them in PvP
> combat.  By farming, a player can safely advance to become bigger
> and badder. It's slow gain, but with no risk, so its a good
> paradigm for the risk-averse individuals. Being a farmer or a
> miner isn't the same thing, because while it may be the same sort
> of means, its not the same end.  What heroic farmer defeated the
> dragon by having the best crop yield?

Its interesting that you say farming is low risk and slow gain. In
the games I've played it has always been the most efficient
approach, and personally I think that's why people do it. By farming
you can pick a spot with a constant supply of monsters at a pace you
can handle and likely known loot.  That tends to beat wondering
around randomly looking for things to kill in most instances. Not
only can you manage the difficulty so that it is consistent, with
travel time considerations & death penalties the net gain is almost
certainly higher.

Everquest which is probably the game most associated with camping
does now have 20-120 minute instanced dungeon crawls now available,
and they seem to be pretty popular. You get reasonable xp & loot
whilst crawling through a dungeon. The only downside is that it gets
a bit samey after a while but people do like these bite sized
helpings of achievement.

Dan
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev