[MUD-Dev] Re: MMO Communities

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad]

"Michael Sellers" <mike at onlinealchemy.com> writes:
> Sean Howard wrote:
>> "Koster, Raph" <rkoster at soe.sony.com> wrote:

>>> We may not like it, but all empirical evidence at the moment
>>> seems to show that requiring cooperative team play for success
>>> causes greater retention.

>> I couldn't disagree more. It's all in how you look at the graphs.
>> Requiring cooperation may keep certain types of people past their
>> due date, but it will alienate others well before they have a
>> chance to get tired of the game. You are creating that divide so
>> early on that you may not be able to measure it.

> Raph can certainly speak for himself, but I suspect that his
> empirically founded argument will point out that you're talking
> relative numbers: for every one person you alienate with a
> requirement for cooperative team play, you retain some multiple
> number of people who really like it and are more likely to stick
> around because of it.

Hm. Not sure why you want to require cooperative team play. I am not
at all certain that intrusive designs is what most casual players
would crave for. The better solution is to design the reward systems
so that solo-play is a valid activity while looking for interesting
people to team up with and make substantial pay-offs for teaming up
(40% more XP for all, or something similar).

This is way different from people waiting for a team to assemble,
which I suspect most casual players would find annoying. Remember
there are two types of hobbyists: casual dablers and serious
competitors. MUDs tend to favour the latter group, but most players,
even on a golf course probably belong to the former... You should be
allowed to have fun with your golf-club without being dependant on
other players.

--
Ola - http://folk.uio.no/olag/
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