[MUD-Dev2] [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs

[Steve "Bloo" Daniels]

Caliban Darklock wrote:
> On 5/17/07, Steve Bloo Daniels <bloo at kriegergames.com> wrote:
>>
>> Of course, the "newbie forest" can be an instance.  But a better
>> question is what if there were no "newbie forests?"
> 
> What if there were no comfortable and reasonably safe place for the
> non-hardcore player to enjoy himself?
> 
> Well, you would lose the casual player. He would log on and walk out
> the gates of town and get killed. Then he would say "that sucked" and
> decide whether to try again. Eventually he would decide not to try
> again, and go out to "tell all my friend on the internet for to not
> for to buy you product".

What I was poorly trying to imply there is that re-examining the
assumed need for a newbie zone, and all the design assumptions
that lead to it, is always a good idea.

If your game is just about killing things that are progressively
more dangerous to you (and many of them are), maybe you need a
newbie zone.  But that could be a 'training' zone distinct from the
main persistent world (IIRC, Anarchy Online did this, LOTRO does it,
and there have been others).

But what if the world wasn't just about killing things of greater
threat to you over time?

-bloo