[MUD-Dev2] [Design] Obstacles and Hindrances [was: Food in MMOs & Perma-death]

[cruise]

As usual, I'm trying to generalise principles from other discussions.

Both the current threads discuss adding things that could easily be 
considered obstacles to a game. Another that has been mentioned is 
fast-travel.

Obviously we recognise some kind of "challenge" is necessary - otherwise 
a game would be simply: click icon, load-up game, "Congratulations you 
are level 1,234,593 and ruler of the Universe!"

The question would appear to be more a debate about the degree of 
difficulty. Naturally, this is going be a very subjective level, and 
depends on the target audience, but we can still discuss the principles 
involved in making those choices.

To borrow some comments from the other threads:

Thus spake Tess Snider...
 >2.) Death must be meaningful.
 >3.) Death must be noteworthy.
 >4.) Death must be avoidable, and it should be a *consequence* of
 >something the player has consciously chosen to do.

Thus spake Michael Chui...
> Actually, I think we can. I have to disconnect the system from the others
> first, but how about if you have a sense of taste that develops? The more
> you sample food, the more you can distinguish the finer aspects of food.
> Same applies to drinks, different brews, aromas, etc. I don't dare dip into
> the technical details, but this is a ladder of achievement that people 
> might
> enjoy in and of itself.
> 
> Reconnecting back to other systems, you might be able to use this finer
> sense of quality in order to let people create buffs/unbuffs/poisons based
> on the quality of foods. Granted, this all seems to hinge upon being 
> able to
> create food, but... what can I say? =)


In both these snippets, I see a common idea: Adding a certain obstacle 
to the game offers more chances for rewarding game play.

 From Tess's list, perma-death offers:
a) The option to give a "fitting end", or go out in a blaze of glory, 
which would appeal to roleplayers.
b) The lack of death provides a good indication of a player's skill 
(from point 4).
c) All victories become sweeter, since the risk was much more.

 From Michael's list:
a) The option for another trade: connoisseur
b) Allows creation of a variety of potentially useful effects that 
players can use.

Note I said "rewarding game play", not "rewards from gameplay." I think 
it was Sean who initially drew the distinction between the two in an 
earlier thread. Just adding food can give a player rewards, "Click this 
button every hour or suffer reduced performance." That isn't 
/rewarding/, however.

Games should have obstacles and hindrances. They, technically, aren't 
the problem. It's the means for overcoming them that are available to 
the player that distinguishes between challenges and annoyances.