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

[Damien Neil]

On 8/4/05, cruise <cruise at casual-tempest.net> wrote:

> So, we have a game that has a form of levelling and ability
> increases - it has loot, which offers boosts to abilities. There
> are different jobs for the player to pursue, which require
> different levels in the different abilities.

> So far, so CRPG, right?

> Yet most players don't pursue the levelling very strongly, don't
> fuss over having the best loot, and spend most of the time just
> /playing the game/.  Advancing in the game doesn't give you more
> power, but simply provides more to do, and more challenges.

It's not at all coincidental that players don't have an avatar in
The Sims.  There's a disconnect between them and the characters.
When a Sim gets a promotion, it's the Sim--not the player--that has
a new job.  The fun of the game comes not from advancing the lives
of the Sims, but from manipulating them.

I never played The Sims Online, but from what I've been told about
it, the designers completely misunderstood this aspect of the
game--they gave the player an avatar, putting them in the game
rather than watching it from above.  And the players then proceeded
to focus on leveling up and acquiring loot just as they do in other
MMOGs.

                      - Damien
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