[MUD-Dev] Blog about GDC implies changes to MMORPG population

[John Buehler]

Allan Hill writes:
> --- John Buehler <johnbue at msn.com> wrote:

>> Be sure to give him and the crafters other options.  Assuming
>> that crafters are the source of his goods and that crafters must
>> sell goods might impair the ability of the game to provide
>> players with the experience that they're really after.  Crafters
>> might well just forage to obtain raw materials and then give away
>> what they make.  As a merchant, Damion might use some black box
>> manufacturing technique (e.g. NPCs) in order to produce the items
>> that he sells.  And the sets of goods in each pool may be
>> disjoint.  Factories may only produce practical items, while
>> crafters may only produce vanity items.

> An alternative to black-box NPC crafters is to support PC crafting
> guilds that contain both "crafters" and "merchants".  Within the
> guild, the merchants handle gathering materials and selling
> products.  The crafters make the items.  The guild provides a
> tight structure for both types to interact, so that they don't
> have to spend time looking for strangers to meet their needs.
> Advanced supports could be devised to bring even more diverse
> types of players together.  (i.e. Add guards to the mix to protect
> the guild and allow merchants and crafters to work in peace.)

Sounds possible to me.  Just retain options because we don't yet
know what crafters want out of a multiplayer game.  Provide your
structure.  But provide others as well.

To obtain raw materials, let crafters

  1. Kill monsters
  2. Pray to NPC deities
  3. Forage/salvage/labor
  4. Rely on customers
  5. Rely on NPC patrons
  6. Rely on a player organization (per your guild approach)
  7. Others

There may be no stock way that crafters like to obtain their raw
materials.  It may only be in the actual crafting of items that
crafters tend to follow a pattern.  Perhaps not even there, given
that there are so many different crafting trades possible.

JB
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