[MUD-Dev] Why do smart people grind?

[Kirinyaga]

neild-mud at misago.org [mailto:neild-mud at misago.org] wrote:

> I would love to see a persistent world game with a play structure
> similar to Nethack.  Death forces you to start over from scratch,
> but the game can be "won" in a day or two of play.  It'll probably
> take you months before you manage to win once, let alone do so
> consistently.

> A game like this could afford to be casual-friendly.  Since
> reaching the highest levels or finding the rarest items is a
> temporary state, ending when the character dies or "wins", there's
> no need to lock the best rewards behind a long-term grind.

> To make it even more interesting, have the world itself follow a
> similar pattern--player actions change the world in significant
> ways, frequently.  Every once in a while, the world arrives at an
> end state and resets.  The end-game for top players is working at
> bringing about a desired ending.  Different factions of players
> would compete to reach their desired end.

This is how World War II Online is working. Once in a while, the war
is won by either side, the world state is then reset and another war
starts. I'm not sure about the players ranking, I don't know if they
are reset as well.  Anyway, I don't think it will work in another
kind of game. Here, there is an obvious goal to reach, and it makes
sense to reset the world. Maybe something similar could be done for
example in DAoC, for the RvR : something special could happen when a
realm get all relics, then the world is reset.  Because it's true
that aiming for a precise goal, and knowing that successfully
reaching it will put you in a "hall of fame" will certainly be more
interesting that the endless PvP where, for the sake of balance,
none of your acts really matters more than a handful of
minutes. This kind of things also happened in EQ, with the Sleeper :
it could be awakened only once, and a message broadcast on the whole
server, stating the Sleeper is freed and ready to destroy the
world. The guilds that did it are known on their server, or even
across. This could only be done once however, but one can imagine a
game (not EQ, obviously, nobody will accept their character to be
reset ehehe) where the Sleeper effectively destroys the world and
everyone has to start from the begining again.

For this to be interesting however, the goal has to be long-term. If
it happens too often, it is no fun. And to be casual-friendly, there
should be a mecanism that give them enough time to reach the same
level of power that harcore players can reach, _before_ the world is
reset. Not an easy task. To give everyone more satisfaction, I also
think the goal has to be reached with a global effort, involving an
important part of the server population, not a few chosen (although
the hardcore players will certainly enjoy if a few peoples "lead"
the effort and can brag more than others at the end of the day). The
common quests, ala Horizons, are a good example of this in my mind.
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev