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<H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: "Dr. Cat" <<A HREF="mailto:cat#bga,com">cat#bga,com</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Fri, 1 May 1998 14:30:14 -0500 (CDT)</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Sender</em>: "Petidomo List Agent -- Kanga.Nu version" <<A HREF="mailto:petidomo#kanga,nu">petidomo#kanga,nu</A>></LI>
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<PRE>
> One of the common complaints (probably about 3th or 4th after free PK)
> I've read in my brief web reading on UOL is that early players managed
> to acquire stats, possessions (eg castles), and positions with some
> ease (due to being there at the beginning) which are no extremely
> difficult to acquire. The complaint is that this temporal inequity is
> somehoe "unfair".
From my reading, it's not merely a case of the earlier players having had
less competition, or stocks of treasure not having become as depleted, or
anything like that. It's that Origin made major changes to the game
mechanics and prices because they realized people were building up far
faster than they intended. So the rate at which skills increase through
use was cut WAY down, prices of buildings were doubled twice in one
month, etc.
One could argue "inflation" for the latter, I suppose, and claim that
overall the phenomena of newcomers having a challenge to get started and
catch up with established old-timers is true in most human societies.
(Though I might point out in return, that in most human societies, the
rich people with "old money" won't take advantage of it to MURDER you.)
But I'm sick of this "if it's like reality it's ok" or "if it's like
reality it's a good thing" bullshit. I've seen it in computer game
development my whole career, I've always been sick of it, and I'm still
sick of it.
Look, if you say "Well, the act of swinging a sword towards a monster
will either lead to your sword hitting the monster, being blocked by the
monster's weapon, or the monster narrowly dodging. We decided to go with
these results rather than your sword turning into a singing dolphin and
spraying you with magic rainbow beams that teleport you to the top of the
empire state building and give you a craving for donuts. Because the way
we decided to do it seems more realistic." Well, then I'm all for it.
If you say "In this game you're going to have to go use the bathroom
twice a day. Though you can get by with once sometimes, and sometimes
you might need more based on what you ate your health, activity, the
air temperature, etc. In any case we will make sure that whatever number
of game-hours you're logged on for, you spend the same percentage of them
in the game bathroom that you do in real life. While in there you're
required to simulate all the details by typing "unfasten belt", "lower
pants", "sit on toilet", "read magazine", "get toilet paper", "use toilet
paper", "flush toilet", "stand up", "raise pants", "walk to sink", "raise
pants again", "fasten belt this time", "turn on faucet", "get soap",
"wash hands", "rinse hands", "get towel", "use towel", and "jiggle toilet
handle". This obviously makes our game better because it obviously makes
our game more realistic, and more realistic is always better". Well...
If you say that I think you're nuts. :X)
"More realistic" is clearly not something that "always makes a game
better" or "never makes a game better". It's a "source of potential
ideas, some of which are good ones and some of which are bad ones". Each
must be evaluated on its own merits.
I think making a game that accentuates the difference between old-timers
and newcomers strongly is a bad idea commercially. It makes it so that
your customers from your first few months are the most likely to be
satistisfied, and so it's a lot harder to grow your customer base with
new players after that. Artistically I think it's a bad idea too.
In Furcadia I strive to reduce the differences between old-timers and
novices. Not eliminate them, but not make them steep enough that a
sizable percentage of newcomers will feel "I'm unwelcome/uncomfortable in
this cliquish place, it's for the old-timers and not for me". Quite the
opposite, I'm trying to instill a strong sense in the old-timers that
welcoming and helping new players is one of the most desirable things a
person could do. The "influence trees" mechanism I plan to put in later
should do a lot in service of this.
Making a game so that it takes substantially longer to achieve the same
level of power that the old-timers got very rapidly wouldn't seem to be in
harmony with my design goals at all. Making it so that those more
powerful people could also KILL you, making the time needed to catch up
with them even longer, really doesn't sound appealing.
I saw one player (and he's probably not the only one) begging Origin to
set up one non-PK "shard" out of the ten, so that people that wanted to
be safe from all that could go there, and Origin could treat it as a big
experiment. Keeping the other nine copies of the world the way they seem
to want it, more "realistic". Sounds like a no-brainer to me, to try
that very valuable and informative experiment. I bet Origin won't do it,
though, I know them. :X)
*-------------------------------------------**-----------------------------*
Dr. Cat / Dragon's Eye Productions || Free alpha test:
*-------------------------------------------** <A HREF="http://www.bga.com/furcadia">http://www.bga.com/furcadia</A>
Furcadia - a new graphic mud for PCs! || Let your imagination soar!
*-------------------------------------------**-----------------------------*
--
MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.
</PRE>
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<ul compact><li><strong>Follow-Ups</strong>:
<ul>
<li><strong><A NAME="00424" HREF="msg00424.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> J C Lawrence <claw#under,engr.sgi.com></li></ul>
<li><strong><A NAME="00323" HREF="msg00323.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Marian Griffith <gryphon#iaehv,nl></li></ul>
<li><strong><A NAME="00313" HREF="msg00313.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Adam Wiggins <adam#angel,com></li></ul>
</UL></LI></UL>
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<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00299" HREF="msg00299.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> J C Lawrence <claw#under,engr.sgi.com></LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00301" HREF="msg00301.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></strong>,
Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Fri 01 May 1998, 18:58 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00421" HREF="msg00421.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></strong>,
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Wed 06 May 1998, 17:48 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00442" HREF="msg00442.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></strong>,
Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Wed 06 May 1998, 22:21 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00492" HREF="msg00492.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></strong>,
Marian Griffith <a href="mailto:gryphon#iaehv,nl">gryphon#iaehv,nl</a>, Sun 10 May 1998, 21:03 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00302" HREF="msg00302.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></strong>,
Dr. Cat <a href="mailto:cat#bga,com">cat#bga,com</a>, Fri 01 May 1998, 19:31 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00313" HREF="msg00313.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></strong>,
Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Sat 02 May 1998, 00:42 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00323" HREF="msg00323.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></strong>,
Marian Griffith <a href="mailto:gryphon#iaehv,nl">gryphon#iaehv,nl</a>, Sat 02 May 1998, 10:23 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00424" HREF="msg00424.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></strong>,
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Wed 06 May 1998, 18:10 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</ul>
</ul>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00223" HREF="msg00223.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea</A></strong>,
Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Wed 29 Apr 1998, 01:23 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>
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