[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] MMO's are for Newbies

[Nicholas Koranda]

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:53:31 -0700, "Nicholas Koranda" <nkk at eml.cc>
said:
> This post was written by Richard Bartle and posted on another forum. I
> found it very compelling and wanted to share it in this group.
> 
<snip>
>
> * Works of art. Virtual world design involves much craft, but at root
> it's art. A designer makes decisions based on how they feel things ought
> to be. Players will eventually pick up on the differences and play a new
> virtual world just because they like the designer's previous work: Raph
> Koster, Brad McQuaid and Richard Garriott already have more creative
> freedom than first-time designers. Point #3 evaporates! If only
> designing a virtual world didn't take so long


The word "art" really struck me after I had read through this.  Besides
the obvious point about bringing newbies in to sustain a virtual world,
the #1 reason for appealing to the newbies in large *commercial* games
is the almighty dollar.  Newbies mean more money for the company.

Consider this for a moment.  How would each MMOG that has been made, be
different if they were free to play and not-for-profit?  I believe the
decisions that would be made would be different, and in the best
interest of the *game*, not the players. 

This brings me back to the word art.  Artists who paint pictures attract
a specific group of followers.  These followers enjoy the artist?s
paintings because they share similar interests in emotional expression,
colors, and true beauty as the artist.  Artists do not change the way
they paint to appeal to more people.  They paint and express themselves
in the way in which they were born to do, in hopes that others will find
the same emotions from it that they do.  What if MMOG designers designed
virtual worlds from what they believed to be in the way they were born
to, the way they feel is best for the game.

What you would get is a very loyal following of players who love your
game for what it is.  You will also have a much smaller following, which
is why commercial developers do not design worlds in this way.

If you designed a world in which the features, story, and game play were
designed in the best interest of the game (in the way the artist
envisioned it) then you will have those that love it (since they have a
desire to play the type of art you created) or they will not like it and
go find some other art to play.

Richard Bartle has said before that if virtual worlds could be made
quickly it would open up new possibilities.  Imagine if a virtual world
could be made by any "artist" so they could express their design vision
and let the players of the world decide if they love his or her art.