[MUD-Dev2] Specialization

[Sean Howard]

"Raph Koster" <raph at areae.net> responded to me thus:
>> I believe, and it is my constant motto, that every player should have
>> the opportunity to do everything and be everything and see everything in
>> a game. Period.
>
> Every player does. The question is whether every CHARACTER does.

First, that's not true. Not all players have the same amount of time,
energy, attention, permissions, or abilities. A player might, for example,
really like feature X (let's say crafting) but due to absurd constraints
can not participate in it to the extent that he would like (perhaps the
requirement to interact with live players when he plays on off times or on
a low pop server, or the mindless grinding up levels before customization
is possible, or the bothersome requirements for rare resources gained only
through combat or exploration of high level zones).

In my own case, I have a low tolerance for grouping (even beyond the
anxiety that comes from potentially uncomfortable and unwelcome social
situations, I don't like the loss of autonomy that comes from having to
coordinate simple actions and activities with a group of people with
different needs) and for grinding (if I've done something once, I get it.
Doing something twice is redundant. Doing it a thousand times is abusive.
I never did my homework either.) These two things have prevented me from
enjoying MMORPGs in just about every single case.

Second, why bother with separate characters anyway? You decide that, yeah,
shooting fireballs out of your fingertips is great, but you want to see
what it is like to wear heavy armor and carry a sword... so, you need to
create an entirely separate persona? To engage in gameplay, one has to
purposely severe one's ties to his online self and literally create
multiply personalities? Does that strike anyone else as absolutely insane?
In the real world, if I want to learn how to use a loom, I don't spawn a
new personality, starting as a baby who has to learn to walk and talk
again first, single minded in his pursuit of weave work.

Specialization is entirely counter productive to not only the social but
also the psychological aspects of being online. Gameplay should not create
split personalities. There are gameplay mechanics that have been around
for decades that allow players to engage in multiple disciplines without
breaking precious specialization.

> Since I fall on the sandboxy side myself, I tend to agree with you -- as
> a player. But I would not make that prescriptive for every possible
> game.

No, not for every game. But I don't think the WoW/EQ/Diku model has the
legs to deliver online gaming into anything greater than a fad. If all new
MMORPGs follow in the same fashion as LoTRO, CoH, EQ2, TabRasa, etc,
MMORPGs are doomed to obscurity within the next decade. It's no
coincidence that Second Life, though terrible in nearly every way, is the
thing that is becoming representative of online gaming to the world at
large.

-- 
Sean Howard