[MUD-Dev2] Players are shallow [was: The Future of Quests]

[cruise]

On Thu, 8 Jan 2009, John Buehler wrote:
> Right. Because the purpose of these games is to provide a break from putting
> extra effort into things.  The only people who will put extra effort into
> your game are the ones who have a definite surplus of effort.  That may be
> due to a driven life, or simply a lack of opportunity elsewhere to expend
> themselves productively.
>
> Players are shallow because even the ones that are truly deep will spend
> their deep time elsewhere.  How many deep people will focus their energies
> on playing a game?  We don't really.  We spend them designing the things.

Why wouldn't people spend their energies on a game? Currently the answer 
to me is because the games don't provide the payout for that kind of 
effort.

That's down to us game designers - I've mentioned how I'm trying to fix it 
- what else can we do to give games the "reward" of a good (as in "deep 
and rewarding") book or film?