[MUD-Dev] NEWS: Why Virtual Worlds are Designed By Newbies -No, Really! (By R. Bartle)

[Per Magne Bjørnerud]

Ah, I was discussing that article on a forum some days ago.

  Note: The first impression of a lot of people was that the article
  was 'Arrogant'. Be cautious here, don't give people the impression
  you are thinking like "Anyone that disagrees with me is a
  newbie. When they become a veterans, they will know better, and
  agree with me."

I think the two examples of Permadeath and Instances are not the
best ones. This is a soapbox, yes, but I felt it was a bit
oversimplified.  Permadeath and Instances both have various pros and
cons. (And note that even the 'hardcore' single-player market have
evolved into games with a 'save game' option, even if there is some
cons to immersion.)

Damien summed it up nicely. "I want instancing" probably means "I
don't ever want to stand in line to kill the Evil Overlord ever
again". Non-instancing was tried, and didn't work well in all cases.
Now, instancing is being tried, and it will also have cases it won't
work well.

I don't think it is because newbies is demanding instances, but
because the mass market really hate problems caused by
non-instancing.  Instancing will have problems, and it's up to
designers to find a new mechanism, or a combination of previous
mechanisms that will work even better in the future.

The MMORPG genre is evolving fine. I completely disagree with any
ideas that games will magically deteriorate just because the mass
market is unfamiliar with the MMOG games. Newbies don't want "bad"
design, but they might want something completely different from the
current MMORPG player.

And now to the observation I think resolves everything I disagree
with in your article:

  You are using the term "Virtual Worlds", not MMOGs. Why?

I think that real "Virtual Worlds" will only be a small share of a
huge online gaming market. You seem to be thinking about the
direction the whole MMOG market is heading as a whole, and think
that "Virtual Worlds" have to be a part of this direction. It is
not.

I don't think the masses want "Virtual Worlds", they just want
entertainment. Even if they become veterans, they still might just
want a few hours of the latest entertainment. Mass market
entertainment may be mutually exclusive for 'sophisticated veterans'
that want to be immersed in a Virtual World.

This is not a destructive force, it is just a split into seperate
genres as the MMOG market grows. Most people just want
entertainment.  And not because they are "Newbies", but because they
are "Casual".


Hm. The post came out a tad negative, I didn't mean to do that. But
I think you need to think more about the term "Virtual World". If
you are talking about MMOGs, you are covering a big genre and a lot
of people is simply not interested in what you want.

--
Per Magne Bjornerud
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