[MUD-Dev] Homogeneity and choice (Was DESIGN: Why do people likeweather in MMORPGs?)

[olag at ifi.uio.no]

Raph Koster:
> John Buehler wrote:

>> The denial of service that this brings to mind is mana.  When a
>> mana class has consumed its mana pool, that class is out of
>> action. That's denial of service.  It's taking away the very
>> entertainment that the players are paying for.  It's a flaw in
>> the way that magic has been introduced into the game.

[...]

> Managing limited resources (including time) is an important
> ingredient of gamepay, and making this a blanket principle is
> ridiculous.

It's not only the managing, but the arousal that comes with the
(cognitive) shifts in the situation. That's whats bring forth
excitement and which automated carebear-gameplay do poorly
IMO. There is something exciting about sudden
chaos. Fireworks. Discolights. Lots of things happening. Bearly in
control, but still believing that we can handle it => flow =>
optimal experience. Switching to defensive mode and hoping for that
manapool to regenerate enough to finally get in that last nuke while
dodging blows.

Manapool is a good concept, but players should have many different
alternative actions when they run out of mana. Just one pool and all
actions dependent on that single resource gets boring. You should be
able to do something when the manapool is empty. If death or waiting
is the only option then it is as John points out: denial of
service. You should at the very least have a chance to run to
safety. The rechargers in AO might work fairly well. The other team
members have to take over aggro, I run to what I think is a safe
place and recharge the manapool, then run back. So basically, if the
manapool allows modal shifts in the activity then it is good, it
brings variety to the gameplay.

I think this is where the role-oriented team based gameplay fails to
some extent. Each members should HAVE to take on at least several
types of modal activities that are orthogonal (mutually exclusive
roles that are different in nature), and the environment should
relentlessly force the players to shift roles during combat. Less
pleasant, more fun IMO.

This is also what makes PvP exciting and arousing. You are idling,
you get backstabbed, you have to decide quickly "Which mode do I
switch to? Flee or fight?".

Ola.
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