[MUD-Dev] wherefor in-game artists?

[Christopher Allen]

Douglas Goodall wrote:
> 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)?

In the initial design, new players arrived in the Outer Bailey, and
were considered guests, but did not have access to the Inner Bailey
where the nobility lived. If they wanted to participate in court,
they'd have to earn the right to entry to the Inner Bailey. We tried
to encourage those players to "graduate" and leave their Outer
Bailey connections behind, and in fact, even actively discourage
Inner Bailey/Outer Bailey connections through social mechanisms.

Initially the problem with this was that the Inner Bailey wasn't as
populated, and thus less interesting, and so it was hard to get it
boot-strapped so players would not leave. The Inner Bailey is now
fully populated, but now what we are experiencing is that players
use the alts to have both an Inner Bailey and Outer Bailey
characters.

There also has been an attempt to have an Under Bailey, where
outcasts, exiles, and theives live, and has a different social
"code" that would appeal to different people then the
"honor/nobility/chivalry" of the Inner Bailey. However, we've had
similar results as we experienced with the opening of the Inner
Bailey.

Our new game, Lovecraft Country, does not allow you to have alts, so
that should help avoid part of the problem. In addition, when you
leave the town of Arkham to go on an "expedition" you don't arrive
until you've logged off for about 12+ hours. To return will also
take 12+ hours. Both of these techniques (and some differences on
how Lovecraft Country runs groups) should hopefully make a
difference.

-- Christopher Allen
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