[MUD-Dev] trade skill idea

[Patrick Dughi]

	Of the different sub-themes running on this topic thread, I think
one thing is slightly overlooked with all the comparisons of combat and
trade skills being nearly equivilent.

	Combat is usually over in a couple of minutes.

	Most of the talk I hear about skills involves a level of depth and
detail that couldn't easily be represented short of designing a game
around _Each_ skill.  Each 'game' then, for all it's variety, etc,
couldn't easily be delivered short of a several day piece of work.  

	You still looking at the people who want to be able to play just
an hour a day, and still receive satisfaction?

	Lets move on...

	The comparisons with SimCity/Coaster/ThemePark/Bread/etc all hinge
on the fact that it IS the game.  That's great, but most muds out there
spend 5 years developing just the combat/magic/interaction section of
their game.  Do they have 5 years to put into bread making?  How many more
to expand that to a general 'Cooking'?  Too bad you left out the
blacksmith, or the tanner, or the talior, the candle-maker, the chimney
sweep, and the janitor.  How long did it take to make SimAnt (a fun game,
but not very detailed simulation) anyway?  

	Sounds like you better just make a single-player non-mud Sim-<your
job here> game.  Maybe include an internet option to exchange job skills &
their results for game $. ie, your SimForeman has to use the services of a
SimBuildingInspector, a group of SimUnionLaborers, a couple of
SimTruckDrivers to get the materials (originally from the SimMiner to
SimFactoryWorker, etc)...so on and so on.  You could have the opportunity
to get a computerized or real person.

				That's fine.

	It just doesn't sounds like a mud.  It's more like a single user
game with an interactive auction line.

	Granted, I'm allowing you the benefit of the doubt.  I assume
you've already written indepth, 5+ years of work on every type of sim-job,
and that you're even going to have multiuser interaction (which most of
the previous posts neglect to add..baking/blacksmithing/etc alone). 
Further, that jobs will be filled in a real-world way; based primarily on
education & experience and an actual need to make money to continue to
exist in a (preferably) comfortable fashion and to make that context
available to others (spouse, kids, etc). After all, if my
SimSuperstarAthelete gets a SimBrokenBone, I need to know that my
SimDoctor is good - not just that the player behind them shelled out 40$
to pick up the doctor SimJob addon. 

	I also would get upset if my SimDoctor decides he's too tired
right now to finish, and he'll pick it up next weekend when he has more
time.

	Maybe I'm being too pragmatic.

.....

	..and maybe I'm being too cynical, but I doubt that for any given
job set, you're going to find enough people out there who have been so
incredibly interested in that one job who are not already engaged in doing
it in reality, that you could possibly have a usable customer base. 

	For the ones who actually do it - what would be their motivation
to play a not-quite-the-real-thing simulation?  I play games to escape.
Not much escape there.  Heck, depending on the job, (programmer, web
designer, etc), what _is_ the escape?

	Just seems to me that reality already has a monopoly market for
the ultra-resolution simulation field. 

	I can't believe that in any world I've lived in that there are
more people who would want to be an interior decorator (or any other given
regular job) than would rather appear to the world as a rich supermodel
who knows 12 languages, has 4 doctorates, helps the needy, and does base
jumping and lunar exploration in their spare time?

	Telling someone they have the chance to be just like everyone else
never attracted many customers.  Telling them they can be something that
isn't even possible except in imagination is usually the lure of a game.

-Want to build a city? How about run the world? Maybe rule the galaxy?-
	    Well, now you can't! You can make bread.

	I know most people wouldn't want to spend their personal time
pretending to be an accountant or fry cook, or even a vaunted, much sought
after interior decorator role. Ask them if they want to get the credit for
potentially saving the world from a monster invasion though, and they get
glossy-eyed.
	
		People already get enough 'regular'.

						PjD

p.s. "reality tv shows" are anything but. They're no exception to that
last statment, unless the common person really does find themselves often
stranded on a desert island, voting someone away each week, playing games
for prizes, etc.

	





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