[MUD-Dev] Instancing

[ceo]

Douglas Goodall wrote:

> There is a Theory common among game designers that timesinks,
> confrontation, and competition help build community. I have Strong
> Feelings about this theory as its implementation in Shadowlands
> ruined the community in AO.

> Look at it this way...

> Is a good community more like to form based on people socializing
> for it's own sake? Or from being *forced* to socialize in teams,
> raids, and other stressful situations? Is it better to let players
> spend their time as they choose? Or to force them to chat during
> timesinks? Or to force them to watch an amateur song and dance
> performance every three hours? How do players treat each other
> when there are plenty of (instanced) mobs for everyone? How do
> they treat each other when they are forced to compete for
> extremely scarce resources? Basically, is it a good idea to force
> players to interact? Or should interaction be an option?

Howabout "benevolent evil manipulation" (BEM)? a.k.a. "sales".

IMHO the important detail is the distinction between "force" and
"encourage". Encouraging socialization isn't quite strong enough,
because IME a lot of people just ignore your
encouragements. Rewarding it works a lot better. But there are some
games that find a fine point somewhere between reward and
enforcement, that balances the two to the point where everyone ends
up doing it out of choice :) - hence BEM.

You are tricking and co-ercing people into doing what you want them
to do, but it's still entirely up to them and they won't (think that
they) suffer from not doing it.

I also find the concept of "supporting" used by Bjarne Stroustrup in
programming helps here. Games ought to support socialization -
i.e. make it easier to do, and strongly encourage it, whilst not
necessarily forcing you to do it. I get extremely annoyed at being
shepherded into grouping whether I like it or not; but then, I also
hate "on-rails" games, so...

Adam M
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