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

[Sean Howard]

"Jeff Bachtel" <jeff at cepheid.org> wrote:

> Does anyone have any actual evidence to back their assertions that
> the desires of the "silent majority" differ significantly from
> vocal players?

Does human nature count? Who are the people on the city planning
board?  Realtors. Who's on the PTA? People who want "intelligent
design" taught in science classes. Who's in the government?
Corporations that want to increase their profit.

You don't need to look any further than Star Wars Galaxies.  For
instance, Droid Engineers are a stupid class with practically no
value to the game at all. The people who play Droid Engineers make a
decent living, however, because there are certain wedges in place to
make some of their products important. For instance, an architect
can't build so and so without a droid combobulator - it's a
completely arbitrary dependency that exists purely as DE
welfare. The DE guys are so small in number that they have something
of an unofficial forum guild that includes price gouging on such
things (they have price lists for their wares and complain when
people undercut them).

They petitioned the developers to add droid decay - over time, the
droid broke down and had to be replaced - and they wanted this in
addition to the batteries which droids currently require on a
constant basis (batteries aren't made by DEs, so they don't get the
money). They are vehemently against a redesign of droids to be
modular (like space ships are) because they don't want to give the
control over droid design to the players and would much rather have
renewable income in the form of enforced droid replacements. There
is no competition for droid engineers, and the things they want are
no different than if all the energy comapnies in California withheld
energy to drive prices up.

When the developers did the big combat upgrade, they changed the
difficulty of the land - most merchants suddenly became level 1 and
in danger of being squashed by rabbits when trying to navigate the
worlds.  The merchants that complained loudest were the ones with
several huge houses on Dantooine filled with every rare item in the
game that they bought with their near infinite cash supply. Caving
in, the developers allowed anybody to apply camo kits (making it
easier for people to walk around without rabbits kicking their ass)
- but then who complained?  Scouts, because they used to be the only
ones who could apply the kits and saw this as a serious loss of
income despite the marked improvement to many, many other players.

If you leave the SWG forum (which you must currently be subscribe to
post in), you'll see people paint a COMPLETELY different picture of
the game.  In the SWG forum, you see Jedi complain that they are too
weak. Go to GameFAQs messageboards and you'll see complaints that
the supreme powerhouses caused them to cancel their subscription and
put a big shiny chip on their shoulder.

The simple fact is, people want their race/class to be the best in
the game. They want the competitive edge. They complain when they
obviously don't have it (WoW's warriors vs paladins) and when they
already have it, they complain they don't have more (paladins
again). SWG's Combat Upgrade, despite being a much needed
rebalancing of the game, initially went over like a lead balloon
because so many people had to give up their advantages for the
greater good of the population. When Teras Kasi Masters were no
longer able to walk through every encounter in the game while
getting a drink in another room, they complained. When Jedi became
less of a dominating class that literally owned the rest of the
playerbase, I mean they still do, just less so, they complained (and
continue to complain).  There's a lot of people who like the game,
myself included, and actively don't want some of these changes to go
through - but try posting that opinion in the SWG forums and see
what happens.

> I would expect, without evidence to the contrary, that the desires
> of vocal players are the same, proportionally, as the non-vocal
> players.

Are all muslims suicide bombers? Do all parents hate evolution? Are
all Americans conservative? Are all WoW players 13 years old? We
define people by their loudest members, and so very rarely does it
represent a true spectrum of ideas and beliefs.

- Sean
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