[MUD-Dev2] [Design] Dinosaurs evolve to chickens, MMOs evolveto massively single-player games

[cruise]

Mike Rozak wrote:
> But then I play a typical MMO and all I see are parties or individual 
> players running around and not interacting with anyone outside their party. 
> As the mice in Hitchhiker's Guide wanted to replace Aurthur Dent with a 
> robot that just complained about the tea (and no-one would notice the 
> difference - except Aurthur Dent), I could replace most MMO players with 
> NPCs that did pathfinding from point A to point B, occasionally killed a 
> monster, and no-one would notice the difference.

Knowing there is a real-life player behind it does make a difference -
there's an indefinable quality that makes the presence of a genuine
living person behind the avatar something important.

Not to everyone, and not necessarily much, or conciously, but
sufficiently so that it's effect cannto be discounted.