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

[Rayzam]

From: <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.

Yep, low risk, as you put it: constant supply at a pace you can
handle.  Slow gain: it's slow gain, but that's orthogonal to
efficient. Much of farming can be going row by row through all the
same monsters in an area.  They're much less powerful than you, so
you can mow them down without risk.  Each gives a low amount of
exp. You can clear a lot of them, keeping up a rate of
exp/hour. However, when taking something with more risk, that is
more powerful, then you should get more exp. By partying up with
other players, harder monsters with more exp should be doable. It
should be the case that a party of players fighting near their limit
should have a better exp/hour ratio than a solo player farming. If
that's not the case, then the game is unbalanced.

A game can aim for any zone it wants. I personally feel that the
zone should be in the 75% range, in terms of risk. Good play bumps
that up. Bad play bumps that down. And that's another modifier, some
people might farm because they're busy doing somethign else, but
perhaps something sporadic, so they can play at the same time, but
only with limited attention, so they want to crank down the risk
meter.

    rayzam
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