[MUD-Dev] MMORPG Cancellations: The sky is falling?

[Koster, Raph]

From: Oliver Smith

> It's the embodiment of what ships console units and games:
> Simplicity and choice combined to provide entertainment.

That seems like an oversimplification of what makes entertainment,
but your broad point stands. :)

> CoH has incredibly little "content", but what content it does have
> it actually _delivers_, to you. Content and world are integrated,
> so you don't have to use google for an hour to find out what to
> do. Adventuring and exploration still get to make their
> appearance.

> I doubt CoH will be a lasting success, but I hope it will be a
> basis for a move away from the McQuaid/Koster concept of "the
> customer wants to be beaten with a stick, needs to draw blood
> before they can have fun".

Er, I dare you to point out one single place where I have ever said
that or anything even close to it. Given that most everything I have
written on online games is visible via Google, you should be able to
pin it down and call me on it if I have.

I realize that what you state here is a common point of view among
players in general, but this list isn't for players, it's for
design, development, and implementation. And as people engaged in
those endeavors, we should know that there are many hidden
complexities that players do not (and ideally should not) see.

As an example, your supporting text for the "beat with a stick"
school of design is "it is hard to find out what to do." Not only is
this most likely not an intentional design choice, but "only give
players one thing to do" is not the only answer to the problem. In
several of the games that have pursued this path, having only one
thing to do in fact proved to be a major weakness. In others, it was
successful. To me, that sounds like a valid design choice with
certain risks.

Right now, it's a popular design choice. Curiously, it is not a
design choice that over 25 years, we ever saw the entire mud hobby
choose to follow. I think asking why might be a good endeavor for
the list.

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