[MUD-Dev2] Player Choice - How Much is Too Much?

[Amanda Walker]

On Nov 27, 2007, at 1:27 PM, Miroslav Silovic wrote:
> Actually Guild Wars does exactly this. Well, they do it as a weeklong
> event, with cities redecorated extra-dark, and the arrival of the Mad
> King that forces players to do things (and insta-kills those that  
> fails,
> with a resurrect a few seconds later). And pumpkins, and witch-hats,
> and  holiday drinks.
>
> And it works for Guild Wars. Holiday events became something that
> players like and expect. They also have in-game lore that translates
> real-life events into the game-world equivalents (Halloween ->  
> Return of
> the Mad King, New Year -> Wintersday, Chinese New Year -> Canthan New
> Year).

Indeed, and those events are quite fun (I was a bit annoyed to get a  
mummy mask instead of a witch hat this year, but that's how the cookie  
crumbles).

However, and this is very, very important: Guild Wars has a story arc  
as a sideline.  A good one, and a fun one (I'm still not all the way  
through it), but NCsoft understands, accepts, and supports the fact  
that the main draw is the PvP metagame (and not just for cash prizes,  
though I suspect that helps).  The holiday events, the occasional  
weekend mini-events, and so on work precisely because immersion is not  
the main point of the game (though it can be quite immersive).

And boy howdy is GW fun to play.

--Amanda