[MUD-Dev] Wish revisited

[Peter Harkins]

On Thu, Mar 03, 2005 at 04:03:49PM +0100, olag at ifi.uio.no wrote:

> Problem: The user creates... crap.  Solution: The higher rating
> you get the more monster you can create and the more often your
> monsters spawn. After defeating a monster-camp the user is
> required to rate the fight in order to get XP. This is timer based
> to avoid random answers (meaning: the pop-up will stay on screen
> for at least 10 seconds).

It sounds like this is to avoid scripting. While there are a few
players who script for the technical challenge, the great majority
script what is 1. boring or 2. causes delays. I think it'd work more
to avoid those two things than try to force players to put up with
them.

As for players coding 'simple heuristics': I seriously doubt it'll
fly.  The biggest players don't code isn't because of complicated
syntax or keywords, it's because most people don't enjoy thinking
they way you have to do to code. (Strange but true, heh.)

Probably much better to go with the sandbox approach (here's some
rooms, here's some mobs, arrange them) than the toolbox approach
(here's a text editor and a manual). As a coder I'd find the toolbox
much more fun to write and play with, but I know I'm in the minority
and that I'd still be more likely to actually finish things with a
sandbox. Just like players consume game content, coders often
consume only the novel and interesting bits and then wander off --
just look at how many projects never, ever quite get finished.

You can look at text muds for more support of this: there's a
roughly 100:1 player to coder ratio. And as for good coders who can
finish, well, it looks much worse. Though there's plenty of junk and
knockoffs, there's still plenty of good muds that could be great
with another coder/builder or two.

My experience doesn't include much time at MOOs or Second Life and
they may make pretty effective counter-examples, but I'd say they're
in the minority for the above reasons. I'd be interested in numbers
on players who create new things vs. those who don't or just
restring.

--
Peter Harkins - Experienced and skilled PHP developer looking for fulltime
work in Chicago. Visit http://malaprop.org/work for resume and portfolio.
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