[MUD-Dev] Star Wars Galaxies: 1 character per server

[Michael Tresca]

Dubious Advocate posted on Tuesday, December 17, 2002 10:31 AM

> But it's a critical flaw for a commercial product. I'm not in
> favor of being forced into a very rigid and specific playstyle
> simply because a developer somewhere deems it desirable and
> therefore mandatory.

Hmmm.  You mean when I design a game, you don't want to play my
game?  How can I force you into anything?  Just don't play the
game. It's a MMORPG amongst a seat of MMORPGs.

> The current crop of MMOGs have increasingly attempted to force
> co-dependence and social interaction.  "You SHALT play with others
> before Me!"  Their goal isn't the intangle of social evolution IRL
> - they simply want consumer retention through social factors
> supplementing addictive Pavlovian game mechanics.

You can't force it.  You can cultivate it.  The alternative has the
same result over and over: the powergamer playstyle rules.

> I don't pay for those products.  I'm a casual player with a
> well-balanced lifestyle, and while for the most part I am social
> when online and assuming my avatar there are nevertheless times
> when I do want to go off and putter / be self-sufficient.

Sure.  Me too.  And although I'm having difficulty communicating
this, limiting muling is GOOD for the casual gamer.  Mules do
everything, making it impossible for the occasional merchant/tank to
play with others because the mules fill that role.

> I'm most likely to be an organizer and a facilitator but I do so
> asynchronous to game time.  And I like to wear different avatars
> as the mood strikes.  Somehow this gets me labeled a mule.  So be
> it.

Why must that all be in the same game?  Why can't that be on
different MMORPGs?

> Ironically people like me are in the majority and we consitute the
> ideal customer.  We pay the same revenue, we burden the system
> least, we're most likely to interact with other customers in the
> most positive light, and in general are most likely to stay the
> longest because we avoid burnout.

I disagree.  I've watched powergamers try up every option and become
bored once they've cataloged, indexed, and "beaten" the system.
Powergames certainly burden the system to its limits.  They test
every boundary, find any alternative around every barrier, and
ultimately do whatever it takes to "win."  This playstyle is
destructive to other playstyles that maybe only struggle to advance
themselves occasionally, as opposed to every gaming second.

> Again, for a hobbyist MUD any rules the community deems fit is
> appropriate.  But commercial publishers should be thinking in
> terms of permitting a wide variety of longterm customers instead
> of the current devotion to unwashed bleary-eyed addicts.

Vision.  It's all about vision.  I'm not saying every game must be a
junkie-luring addiction.  I am saying that a game with a very strong
setting and theme must set boundaries for its community and decide,
before it opens, what playstyles are valid in the long term.  And
not all playstyles are valid for every game.

What does Star Wars WANT?  Money right now for the next year and
then a dip in customers when Star Trek MMORPG comes out (that's a
joke, but you get the point)?  Or a viable, long-term community that
keeps paying for years and years.

RetroMUD loses people all the time to MMORPGs.  But you know what?
We have players who do this regularly on and off for 10 years.  And
they KEEP.  COMING.  BACK.

If a MMORPG could engender that level of loyalty for the majority of
its players, a minimum level of immersion and social network that
keeps people coming back, I'm convinced it is a very viable business
model.

Mike "Talien" Tresca
RetroMUD Administrator
http://www.retromud.org/talien



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