[MUD-Dev2] [OFF-TOPIC] A rant against Vanguard reviews and rants

[John Buehler]

Richard A. Bartle writes:

> On 02 March 2007, John Buehler wrote:
>
> >Richard, this is exactly the type of player mindset that I'm thinking of
> >when I say that depth isn't in the games because the players really don't
> >care about it.  It doesn't have inherent appeal to those who are drawn to
> >the current crop of games.
> 	I don't for a moment believe that a wide range of players
> will think, "gosh, in this new game I can make a wolf chase me into a
> meadow full of sheep and watch it kill a few, I must play it!". What I do
> think, though, is that when people see that kind of thing happen, they'll
> look on the virtual worlds where that doesn't happen in a less rosy light.
> 	That said, more experienced players may well like the
> concept of depth as something worthwhile for its own sake, and they'll
> certainly appreciate the wider variety of quests or whatever that it
> engenders.

It is my hope that as the depth of experience improves, it will be an
enabling phenomenon, making interactions with the game richer, and not just
some more eye candy.  For example, World of Warcraft developers understood
that the direction that a monster faces can be significant to gameplay.
That small bit of depth added considerably to the experience of being
sneaky.

> 	If it were the case that newbies and people brought up on
> WoW actively disliked the concept of depth, it would be a different story.
> I don't believe that to be the case, however.

Categorically?  No.  In practice, if depth slows down the march to maximum
level (or any goal) and is not inherently as appealing as achieving that
goal, then it is a "barrier to entertainment" and will be poo-pood.

JB