[MUD-Dev] DGN: Mudflation as antibody of a "stain development"

[Mike Rozak]

HRose wrote:

> This is something I wrote on my website. I just decide to "expose"
> it here so that it won't get engulfed with all the rest I
> write. As always I'm glad if it gets read and considered and the
> questions answered in the case it's considered interesting. If not
> let it rest here in peace :)

I've been thinking about a writeup with a similar starting point,
but with a different conclusion. When I get time I'll write it up in
more detail, but here's the gist:

  1) If MMORPGs don't put out content updates their players will
  leave. (The trend is a new retail update once every 6-12 months.)

  2) The content updates do the following:

    a) Add eye candy

    b) Add to the world physics (more player levels, pets added,
    player housing added, etc.)

    c) Add new content at low, mid, and high levels to keep existing
    players happy. (Which HRose discusses.)

  3) Adding eye candy is good, since it keeps up player numbers. As
  an example: a top-10 MMORPG has approximately 100x as many
  simultantous players as a top-10 text-MUD (30-year old eye-candy
  technology). A MMORPG with less out-of-date eye candy, like
  Lineage or UO, has fewer players than ones with the latest
  whiz-bang eye candy. (Runescape seems to break/bend the trend, but
  they're free.)

    a) Adding eye candy is problematical though, since all the
    existing content must be updated. Adding bump maps as an
    eye-candy feature means the 2000+ existing color-only texture
    maps must also have bump maps created.

  4) Adding to the world's physics (stuff players can do) is good,
  to a point. After all, having the latest and greatest feature is
  fun for players, and attracts new players. However, new physics
  has problems:

    a) Add too much physics and new players are overwhelmed by the
    difficulty of they game. They tend not to join the game, so the
    game relies more on keeping existing players. (I think Raph
    Koster mentioned the problem of increasing complexities in
    entertainments, and occasional revolutions towards
    simplicity. Such as with Wargames -> RTS, Text adventure games
    -> Myst)

    b) The more physics, the trickier the eye candy... such as more
    animations. One reason MMORPGs don't have a "sip a cup of tea"
    action is because they don't want to animate tea-sipping for 10
    different races.

    c) Adding physics might break existing content, which means
    testing.

  5) Adding more content is good to a point, too. Adding too much
  content has the following problems:

    a) The more content, the more overwhelming the world is, and
    many players will opt out because they know they cannot complete
    the world, or even get past killing giant rats.

    b) The more content, the more difficult it is to update the
    physics and eye candy. (As mentioned above.)

This means that:

  1) MMORPGs that do NOT put out expansion packs will die
  quickly. (Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, because if you
  admit your MMORPG is going to die, you can put all your effort
  into the second version, not into updates.)

  2) MMORPGs that put out a stream of expansion packs will die
  slowly, gradually catering to more and more niche players. (Mainly
  those players that have huge amounts of time, and/or somehow stuck
  in the world because of relationships or unwilingness to lose
  their character.) In essense, MMORPGs are digging their own
  graves, with the existing player base holding a gun to the
  MMORPG's head and commanding them to dig.

  3) A third solution exists: Instead of "expansion" packs, put out
  "remodelling" packs, that don't expand the world, but tear out
  content/features and replace the content/features with new
  ones. (Remodelling packs MUST be free.) This keeps the content at
  a manageable level, the world physics simple enough for new users,
  and makes eye-candy updates cheaper. However, players will leave
  after 3-6 months. The trick is to get them to return to a
  completely remodelled MMORPG every18-36 months. >From a player's
  perspective, the experience would be like visiting the earth in
  the 1940's, coming back in the 1960's, and then in the 1980's,
  etc. A different set of players would see the 1930's, the 1950's,
  the 1970's, etc. (Permadeath due to "aging" is also necessary.)

Mike Rozak
http://www.mxac.com.au
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