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

[J C Lawrence]

On Tue, 13 Jul 2004 23:26:26 -0500
Damion Schubert <ubiq at zenofdesign.com> wrote:

> I once wrote a piece discussing the game landscape as a triangle
> (unfortunately the piece is lost, apparently), where each corner
> represents a game philosophy: Game, World, and Community.  Pretty much
> any game can be plotted on the graph...

I'd add a fourth corner which I'd call something like "experience".
This is the corner which values the tourist role, values the flash and
sizzle and big explosions, values the simple "Look what happened!"  The
logic behind this corner comes from pairing the axies.  "World" is
external environmental and community is internal/subjective
environmental.  "Game" is inherently active/transitive -- one makes
active decisions about the game and then carries them out.  Thus
"Environment" is thus inactive/intransitive in that one then experiences
and values the game/world/etc TV-style.

> My secondary hypothesis was that players would eventually push the
> game towards the center...

You're saved there by the "eventually" qualifier.  Its tough to say that
things won't happen before the heat death of the universe.  

  What is the larger ROI ratio: defence/growth of the current core
  demographic, or acquisition/growth of a (more) minor demographic?

Tough call, especially given that player demographics often come in
paired relationships.

--
J C Lawrence
---------(*)                Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
claw at kanga.nu               He lived as a devil, eh?
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/  Evil is a name of a foeman, as I live.

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