[MUD-Dev2] The Illusion of World Size (Was: Player Choice - How Much is Too Much?)

[Christopher Lloyd]

--- Amanda Walker <amanda at alfar.com> wrote:
> 
> Indeed.  One of my fun sidelines in WoW during the beta period was  
> wall climbing--I have screenshots of my avatar in all sorts of  
> unlikely places.  Examples:

> Playing the "geometry game" is much more interesting to me than 40- 
> person raids, frankly :-).
> 

Right. And I bet there's a micro-community of players like yourself who
specialise in such activities. Who can find a way to stand on top of
Mount Hyjal first? Prove that it's possible to stand on top of
Blackrock Spire, etc.

A couple of years ago a player friend of mine made a comment about the
world we were in at the time, "It's not as empty as it used to be". I
didn't think that much of it at the time. One of the "games" that she
enjoyed was going places where other people didn't. Unfortunately in
any world that's been online for a while, the Super-Secret Dungeon of
Bubba, hidden beneath the lake, will no longer be a secret, and there
will be a well-worn path there by players who want to raid it and get
the exclusive loot that the area offered.

So we try to expand our MMORPG worlds as much as possible. Hire another
builder/scriptwriter, slap in a couple of new areas at the edge of the
map. That impassable mountain pass? It's open now, you can get to the
barbarian village. The maze-like swamp, if you can get through it, now
has a secret exit at the end , behind the lizard king's throne. You can
get to the underworld from there. Great! More areas to explore!

But like the construction of roads and motorways, if the capacity
exists, people will use it. Your new areas will become just as
populated as the rest of the world, partly by the casual players
exploring, but also by the more hardcore contingent working their way
through the grind. There are plenty of players who sign in, buff
themselves up, and automatically make their way to:

- Area A (where the easiest monsters with the best pHaT l3wT) to see if
anyone has raided it recently. If it has, in 60 seconds, they can be at
the edge of
- Area B (which may well be on the other side of the continent, but has
only marginally less l3wT than Area A). After that, it's
- Area C then
D.
- Area E if convenient, or then on to
- Area F. By that time, Area A has probably respawned, so stop by
- Area G on the way, and then grind through
- Area A and
- B again. 

I know a couple of places that have experimented with methods of
deliberately restricting particular areas of the MMORPG, to make them
feel a bit more exclusive and deserted. Players like to know about
secret (profitable?) areas. They also like to make themselves look good
by -telling other players- about secret areas, and -showing them- the
secret areas. But, bizarrely, at the end of the day, they don't want
other players to -actually go there- because then it wouldn't be their
secret.

Setting aside restrictions that are put in place on certain areas for
"premium" paying customer-players, I thought I'd open up this topic for
discussion.

C.

-- 

Christopher Lloyd

Email: crl199 at alumni.soton.ac.uk
Tel:   +44 (0) 7718 542837