[MUD-Dev] wherefor in-game artists?

[Douglas Goodall]

Christopher Allen wrote:

> What hasn't worked well is that this "pure socializer" game
> doesn't scale well. Socialization requires trust, and trust
> doesn't scale. One of the interesting anecdotes of our experience
> with this is that one of the limits may be the Dunbar Number
> http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/03/the_dunbar_numb.html --
> we'll find out soon, as our players have now created their own
> first game using our tools, Lovecraft Country
> (http://www.lovecraftcountry.com/ in late alpha now), with a bit
> lighter set of "pure socializer" mechanics, and it will be
> interesting to see if they can break the size of Castle Marrach.

I noticed this myself when I played Castle Marrach about a year
ago. Since then I've wondered about several possible ways to
overcome this limit. Could you divide players into smaller
sub-communities by specialization (i.e. poets vs. artists)? Could
you divide players into sub-communities by geography (Castle Marrach
vs. Its Environs)? Could a game like this support more than one
server, each with a particular style that might appeal to a
different player (and further self-select the players for
compatibility)?
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