[MUD-Dev] Homogeneity and choice

[Sporky McBeard]

"Mike Rozak" <Mike at mxac.com.au> wrote:

> (If anyone can think of any other negative-consequence tools, I'd
> be interested to hear them...

  Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
  And sorry I could not travel both
    - Robert Frost

Perhaps the most interesting negative consequence is in the actual
act of choosing. Always wondering what would've happened if you took
the other path. Do I become a ShadowKnight or a Paladin? Both
choices are valid.  Both choices are good. Pick one and only one.

Games tend to let us explore without ever truly limiting us in any
way. In a MMORPG, one could always start a second character to be
what the first one wasn't - though this isn't always an valid
option. When I played WoW, I chose a Tauren Warrior, only to find
out later that the Horde was outnumbered about 4-1 on my server, and
that the warriors are a very broken and fundamentally flawed class
and that the best way to be a warrior in WoW is to be a Hunter,
Paladin, or Druid (or Shaman, I get thoses two confused). But by the
time I wanted to start over as a human Paladin (they get all the
babes), my friends weren't willing to restart their characters with
me.

Don't underestimate the effect of regret.

Or envy, for that matter. In SWG, I wanted to be a Droid Engineer,
Weaponsmith, Architect, Pistoleer, Rifleman, and Teras Kasi
Artist. There is no good reason why my character couldn't do all
these things (the combat classes are mutually exclusive, meaning
that being a master unarmed fighter doesn't make you ranged better,
so your skills are dependant on the context - and the crafted
classes are so intertwined that you can't be a single crafting class
without requiring goods from just about every other one. So much for
independance). I still maintain that if you were to remove the
skillpoint requirements from all but the mutually exclusive combat
professions (combat medic/commando/squad commander/creature
handler), that the game would only be improved.

The fact that SWG limited skillpoints in such a way that you
couldn't do it all (even when you logically should've), perhaps
improved the economy slightly, but ultimately lead to a feeling of
frustration, contempt, and this unshakable feeling of being unfairly
hobbled so that I wouldn't run too far. It lead to the cancellation
of my account.

That's not to say that one couldn't design around envy or even
regret to be a positive thing (in a negative way). These two games
just didn't plan for it, and thus the negatives ran unchecked. For
instance, Everquest 2 has a branching class system which makes the
decision more important and interesting by making the mutually
exclusive choices permanent and unrefundable. Many rpgs use envy to
make temporary decisions more interesting. For instance, do I raise
my strength this level or my hit points? I can eventually raise both
(and I want to), but I can only raise one right now, and for another
level, I'll envy the other.

You know what? I totally forgot what I wanted to comment on...

- Sean Howard
www.squidi.net
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