[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Psychology of skill in MMORPG's

[Michael Chui]

On 6/29/07, Aurel Mihai <aurel.gets.mail at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Besides that mundane feeling of being a hero among superheroes, MMOs do
> suffer from the problem/feature of dice-based combat rather than
> skills-based combat. FPSs generally let you hit what you're aiming at
> unless there's a good reason for you to miss (you're using an MP40 at
> 100+ yards or you're aiming a bazooka at somebody's feet from half a
> mile away and expecting it to go in a straight line). In an RPG you
> generally aim, fire, and pray. Sure, it's frustrating to miss 10 times
> in a row when your crosshairs are right on your enemy. In a paper and
> pencil game where dice-based combat originated, your GM could explain
> that your enemy is running in circles around you while laughing at your
> feeble attempts to hit him, but MMOs don't show this and it ends up in a
> ridiculous situation where two players can stand in front of one another
> shooting a stream of bullets/bolts/arrows/death rays and continuously
> missing.
>

Oddly enough, these problems don't crop up as much in the text-based games
I've experienced. In IRE-produced games, for instance, as well as
Dragonrealms, which I play, and God Wars 2, people will often attribute a
defeat to the other person having a "better system". A system consists,
generally speaking, of a collection of scripts, macros, and key-mappings
that make your actual play very rapid and (thus) the text-based equivalent
of an FPS, though character skill is still involved. People appear to be far
more willing to change their own playstyle in order to get better.

So, I'd simply point out that FPSs and MMORPGs are on a continuum, somewhere
in the middle of which are many text-based MUDs.

-- 
-Michael Chui