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

[Damion Schubert]

Adam Martin wrote:
> Mike Rozak wrote:
>> Damion Schubert wrote:

>>> The key to the issue to is to quite simply, ensure that you know
>>> what your players find fun and/or challenging and to be sure
>>> that you're not 'ant farming'.  Ant Farming is a term I throw
>>> around any time someone designs a feature that is more
>>> interesting for designers to observe than players to play.  The
>>> democracy of the market will always ensure that players will
>>> reject the ant farm game for the one that's more fun.

> But...often ant-farms turn out to be fun anyway, thanks to the
> tend for people to meta-game them. There is the infamous example
> of SimCity and SimEarth, both simulations, but the former
> happening to be a great game, the latter sucking, but also plenty
> more where people have made a lot of money out of taking a hobby
> for ant-farming and turning it into something marketed as a game,
> which other people *just happened* to enjoy in sufficient numbers
> to make it a hit.

You miss the point.  It's fun to RUN an ant-farm (i.e. be the
designer of a SimCity) but is it fun to be one of the people IN the
ant farm?  SimCopter doesn't count, since in that role, you're doing
both.

Ant-farming is great fun - unless you're one of the ants.  Then you
wonder what's up with that magnifying glass.

> For isntance, I see a huge opportunity for games with "combat
> which is more fun because the greatly increased detail *makes it
> more challenging intellectually, and less dull and repetitive*".

> At the same time, I know people who are only interested in "combat
> which is more fun because the increased detail *makes it more
> realistic*".

Fair enough, although I'd argue the market tends to reward simple
and visceral.  But examples I was thinking of are designs where the
designers make things hard or allow players to take advantage of
other players because "some interesting social patterns may emerge."
While sometimes that might be true, if you ever hear yourself say
that, double-check the design, and be sure you're making something
that's fun.

--d
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