[MUD-Dev] DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviors spawned from...]

[Oliver Smith]

Damien Neil wrote:

> I think that attempts to "address an audience" are doomed to
> failure. The true successes are driven by the passion of the
> designer, not a cold, calculating manipulation of the player.

Pardon me for being sceptical, but cold, calculating manipulation of
the consumer is how business works.

Passionate, dedicated games are destined to be the ballroom dancing
and string quartets of online gaming, with Holywood moving in to
sell disposable MMOs with no aim other than creating a new
merchandising line, some spin-off single player games maybe,
possibly a TV-series franchise, maybe expansions if the consumers
buy into it.

Sample cases:

  EQ. Brad McQuaid was full of passion, but I don't think his
  passion is what made EQ a success. EQ's success has grown as more
  of Brad's passion has been sterilized out and replaced with
  audience manipulation. No offense, Brad, I much preferred EQ when
  it was passionate :)

  SW:G. It's hard to think of a dev team who were more passionate
  and devoted to their product, but I think "successful" is a bit
  strong for Galaxies if you take a moment to recount what SW stands
  for.

Of course, this is in terms of MMO success and not neccessarily MUD
success.

- Oliver
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