[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Removing the almighty experience point...

[Caliban Darklock]

On 10/1/07, Vincent Archer <archer at frmug.org> wrote:
> According to Caliban Darklock:
> > Changing "eventually" to "immediately" is not even remotely
> > revolutionary. It's a minor change to the existing system. It doesn't
> > even solve or fix anything.
>
> It's not a minor change, it's a qualitative change. In the achievement
> system, you get a mark for doing something exactly once, and no more.

That doesn't sound qualitative at all. It sounds quantitative. In an
XP system, I earn in-game advancement for doing this every time. In an
achievement system, I earn in-game advancement for it once and only
once.

Why is "once and only once" /better/ than "every time"? Doesn't this
violate the player expectation of consistency?

> Actually, real achievers hate the kind of activity you're advocating.

Who made you the arbiter of what a "real" achiever is?

> Slaughtering hordes of unchallenging mobs for the "ding" sound is not
> remotely interesting. The ONLY reason they keep doing it is because it
> happens to be the fastest way they found of getting their next power-up.

And whatever that fastest way becomes, THEY WILL DO THAT. They will
not do what you want. They will do what is fastest. They will exploit
any bug or inconsistency they find in the system to do it. You cannot
FORCE your players to play the way YOU want the game played.

> Games that feature an xp-based advancement system have tried a lot
> of contorsion to remove the kind of mechanism you seem bent of pushing.

There is a big difference between "not required" and "not allowed". If
you don't understand that, you have no business designing multiplayer
game systems.

> Your level is the reward for time spent in game. My level is the
> reward for things done in game. See the difference?

No, because YOU DON'T GET XP FOR STANDING AROUND. You get them for
DOING THINGS. It doesn't have anything whatsoever to do with time
spent in game.

> Merely spending time, doing things that are trivial
> and even easily automated should not have any form of reward.

Do you know why I can deadlift 600 pounds?

Because I took a bar, and I picked it up over and over again. Then I
added a little weight to it, and I picked it up over and over again
some more. And now, after a couple years of that, I can pick up a
refrigerator.

Trivial, easily automated movements repeated over an extensive period
of time produce rewards. Indeed, they produce rewards that cannot be
achieved any other way.

If you don't understand that, you can't possibly be elite at anything.
You're not building an elitist system. You're building a system you
think will give YOU the advantage, instead of the guy who has it
today. That's not "elitist". That's "unfair". And unfair systems suck.