[MUD-Dev2] Community Play (Was: The Great Mud Survey)

[Dana V. Baldwin]

John Buehler wrote:
> I believe that 'casual raids' exist in a rather informal way in WoW.  There
> are large camps of monsters that many singles or small groups will converge
> on.  They will semi-cooperate to break into the camp and work the quests
> there.  Brief alliances will form and dissolve according to the schedule and
> interests of the various players.  I found it a very enjoyable aspect to
> gameplay.
>
>  
I recall Asheron's Call doing this very well with large encounters such
as the lugian fort. There were many fast spawning mobs of high level in
various choke points with content between. Players had no need to group
to enjoy the content as experience was based on the damage you did. It
was one of the most fun "raid" type of environments because of the
informality they had designed into the system by not needing to group
and instead being able to contribute what you could to an encounter. I
continue to be a huge fan of this design metaphor as it largely removes
the idea of kill stealing and reinforces community play with groups
being more of a friends tool and not the decisive success tool.