[MUD-Dev2] Specialization

[Timothy Dang]

On Mon, Jan 21, 2008 at 11:29 PM, Damion Schubert <dschubert at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 3, 2008 4:50 PM, Sean Howard <squidi at squidi.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> Specialization is entirely overrated. Only in the videogame world would a
>> guy who carries an axe be unable to administer even a bandaid, or somebody
>> who learns to read books by beating the crap out of monsters. People are
>> multi-class, multi-discipline. People learn to play basketball and speed
>> read and write essays and be parents and ballroom dance and program their
>> VCR. Skill based systems aren't really that big an improvement, but it
>> beats forced socialization by purposely inventing ability gaps. I can't do
>> it myself, so I need other people. Bull honkey. It's like telling girls
>> they'll never be president (they'll have to reroll).
>>
>
> Specialization isn't overrated.  Realism is overrated, at least as far as
> game design inspiration comes from.

I'm going to try to stay quiet for a bit on the question of how much
specialization is a good thing in MMOs.

But as for real life, specialization is hugely important. The
mechanisms of specialization might be different than in games, though.

For instance, even if I could master the skills, I don't keep the
equipment on hand to be a weaver, blacksmith, neuroscientist, and
baker. If I had the skills for all those things, it would still be
extremely impractical for me to try to do them all.

In fact, it's quite possible that there is someone (call her Barb) out
there who has all those skills, and treats 4 out of 5 as hobbies. From
my point of view, as an economist, Barb is still specialized because
she chooses one as her primary interaction with the economy.

In an MMO, the hobby and the economic participation are frequently the
same thing. Or maybe they're different, but require the same
resources. (I grind gold as a mage in one place, and have fun as a
mage somewhere else... Bob is a professional programmer who uses his
computer to compose music as a hobby...)

In RL, there are lots of decisions we make which specialize us. I
can't work as a fisherman as long as I live in Arizona. There's the
capital equipment which it would be wasteful for me to own but leave
idle as I practice my other business. I can only keep up-to-date in my
business relations with so many people at a time.

In MMOs, the most common way to cause specialization is by attributes
of the PC. Equipment sometimes, as well. From my point of view as an
economist, PC skills aren't really skills, but characteristics of a
piece of capital. A mage is a backhoe, and a warrior is a database
server. (From my point of view as a player, my WoW mage is a guy who
likes to make things go BOOM. I still have some romance.)

------------------------------
Timothy O'Neill Dang / Cretog8
623-587-0532
One monkey don't stop no show.