[MUD-Dev] Separating newbies and oldbies

[HRose]

Ola wrote:

> Hypothesis: Oldbies ruin the game for the newbies.

I think this depends mostly on the design. Oldbies ganking newbies
in WoW are a problem, they aren't in a game like DAoC. I'd like to
delve more about how to make them play together. And, imho, this
ties with the other "casual players vs rich time crowd". I wrote a
comment about this with the title "Flat power treadmill" but noone
found it interesting enough to comment it.

> - Oldbie drags newbie around the world. Burning discovery
> potential.

Similar to power level problems.

>   - Oldbie chats on private channels. Newbie experience a silent
>   world.

This goes exactly where I place the problem. these different players
should have incentive to play *together*. When it happens they'll
also communicate.

> Main problem: How do you keep oldbies out of the way?

My approach is completely different: How you make them play
together?

> Sub problem: How do you aggregate newbies?

Old players are a resource for every game. DAoC suffered a lot the
idea of putting the /level 20 command in the game exactly because
newbies finished between other newbies and oldbies between other
oldbies. Having old players help is healthy, not damaging. In WoW
this is actually encouraged with exploitable mechanics and public
chat channels, I help a lot newbies and they always thank
me. Friendships are also built this way. I really don't understand
how you managed to consider this a bad aspect because the reasons
you provide above are weak.

> Sub problem: How to get rid of structures that tie oldbies to
> newbies?

Yeah, that's exactly what shouldn't happen. How to make them
stronger?

Just my 2 cents.

-HRose / Abalieno
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