[MUD-Dev] Playing catch-up with levels

[John Buehler]

Matt Mihaly writes:
> John Buehler writes:

>> I'm not a fan of juggling equipment.  It mostly means hassle.
>> I'd prefer to have scenarios subtle enough to permit players to
>> be successful by using their own approach - by making the needed
>> decisions according to their equipment.  I wouldn't want to
>> design encounters that require players to carry equipment for the
>> four types of challenges present in the game.  I think we want
>> players to be able to be somewhat innovative - not pack mules :)

> Players want to be somewhat innovative. Most will never
> be. Designing toward the minority that can be is a poor
> idea. (That's not a comment on your actual idea, just the
> justification for it.)

An intriguing statement.  As I consider these games, I'm constantly
reminded of something that Amanda Walker mentioned a while back:

Amanda Walker writes:

> I think there is an untapped market of gamers for whom danger is
> not a primary goal.  In fact, according to recent surveys that
> have been quoted here on mud-dev, the largest segment of online
> gaming is middle aged adults playing *card and puzzle games*.
> Think really hard about that for a moment.  Not 3D texture mapped
> extravaganzas.  Dinky little games whipped together with Flash and
> Python.

I keep thinking about the 'innovation' of working through the
challenges of puzzle and card games, and how that level of creative
challenge can be worked into a MMORPG.  In the current crop of
graphical games I don't encounter any challenge at all, except for
those of organizing information so that I can efficiently pound on
the right monsters for the right cash and prizes.

>> Right.  A side effect of that is that it paces the players as
>> they progress through the game content.  It extends the life of
>> the game.  In current games, if all characters and monsters were
>> level 50, players would quickly visit everything in the game at a
>> pace that THEY found entertaining and be done with the game in a
>> couple weeks to a couple months.

> If you assume that the game is just about bashing and leveling, at
> least. That's hardly true in many muds, particularly in text.

I was only considering the big graphical MUDs.  If there is an
element of entertainment beyond bashing and leveling in them, I've
yet to encounter it.  >From what I've heard about Achaea, there's
certainly far more to that game.  Unfortunately, I'm not a text
MUDer.

JB
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