[MUD-Dev] Stranger in a Strange Land (was Usability and interface and who the hell is supposed to be playing, anyway? (Was: PK Again))

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

"Koster, Raph" <rkoster at origin.ea.com> wrote:
>Correct; however, in any game that allows for player versus player 
>combat, you'll have said forces. And in addition, if you are careful 
>enough in your design to have depth to the game that can be discovered 
>over time, you'll get clans and guilds of explorer types too. :) These 
>are really nice to have. Treasure them.

Then in my opinion you ought to add in-game email.  Not only is it a
great tool for group leaders to organize their clan/guild, but I
believe it is a reason for players to log on regularly as well.  Even
if there is noone of your clan online, the regular mail makes you feel
that there has been someone online recently that cares about you.  I
would think that there is less resistance to use an in-game mailsystem
compared to regular (external) email.  Besides, with regular email it
is more likely that the clan will think of itself as an entity outside
your system and thus move to other places?? (not really sure)

I'm not going to add mail in my system, but I'm not designing a
complete system, and it's difficult to make a useful mail system
integrated in the world context.

Ola.