[MUD-Dev2] Specialization

[John Buehler]

[My apologies for the late response.  I seem to have a particularly zealous
spam filter.]

Sean Howard writes:

> No, my solution is not to define victory as a socialist statement.
 
> Why? Why does the designer need to be in control? I'm against
> authoritarian game design. Let the player have a say in his experience.

I wanted to isolate these two comments by Sean to underscore the whole
Socialist/Capitalist or Socialist/Democratic schism in both designer and
player debates over game design.  I'm sure that this is no revelation for
most here, but I figure it's worth particular emphasis.

The most extreme Socialist designers have a belief about players that they
are directionless, uncreative, unmotivated players.  As people, they may be
highly dynamic, intelligent and so on, but as players their drive is not in
gear.  Such players just want to be shown what to do.  Like watching a
movie, they get to sit and be entertained.

The most extreme Capitalist designers have a believe about players that they
are purposeful, creative, go-getters who simply want the tools and
opportunity to create empires, businesses, reputations and so forth.  As the
inverse of the unmotivated player, these people may be rather lumpy in real
life.  But when exposed to the possibilities of a game environment, they may
find that they are highly motivated there.

There is clearly a spectrum in place, and different designers and players
drop into that spectrum in different locations.  However, that axis of
design thought is certainly extant.

Perhaps a simpler way to view the axis is how motivated players are to seek
out and/or fashion their own entertainment.  So is the purpose of a game to
entertain players or to let them find their own entertainment?  That is the
consideration that establishes the spectrum from Socialist Designer to
Capitalist Designer.  Some will say that it is clearly one over the other,
while others will say that the balance point is somewhere in between.

There are myriad spin-off considerations to this, of course.  How do
motivated players interact with unmotivated players?  Can motivated players
be leveraged to entertain unmotivated ones?  Should the two extremes
interact at all?  These considerations have spawned many discussions through
the years, and I'll be interested to find out if calling out the existence
of the Player Motivation Level (or Socialist/Capitalist) Axis will aid in
future discussions.