"Advanced" use of virtual worlds? (Re: [MUD-Dev] MMORPGs & MUDs)

[Michael Tresca]

Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt posted on Wednesday, January 30, 2002 10:15 AM

> Aside from the issue of being more or less advanced. Which way do
> player evolve (or devolve depending on your viewpoint), or do they
> change style at all?

This one's easy.  You can use observed experience and your personal
experience as examples:

Observed experience: What age are the twinks?  There's a reason we
joke about twelve-year olds playing.  Powergamers, griefers, GOPs
aren't limited to, but can certainly be entered by, a younger set.
This group is easy to enter, easy to leave, and very common because
of its ease of entry.  Competition isn't necessarily a mature
activity.  It doesn't necessarily require life experience.  Many
people can relate to it.

Personal experience: I started gaming on single-player games killing
stuff.  I can easily transport that experience to MMORPGs.  I was
TRAINED by those other games.  Those other "kill 'em all" games were
common long before MMORPGs (or even MUDs) came along.

Role-playing is not so easy.  You can role-play very poorly, which
of course means you're not effectively role-playing at all.  This
requires a minimum level of maturity, grasp of the language, and a
complex ability to deal with situations.  In other words, if you
want to role-play another character, you have to be at least
somewhat comfortable with yourself.  And that usually requires a
higher level of maturity than blowing stuff up.

My argument is that as the gaming population ages, role-playing is
more likely to be valued because there will be a much larger
populace that has the opportunity to shift gaming styles.  Being
interested in the game in the first place is a big factor -- that's
half the battle, actually.  The next step is evolving one's gaming
style.

Will every kid-turned-adult-gamer do this?  I'm sure they won't.
Will it be more than a handful, enough that marketing towards the
new "adult-gamer" market is valuable?  I think so.

As I've said before, if MMORPGs want to be able to accommodate this
evolution, they will need to be able to accommodate that transitive
gaming style.  Maybe it won't be full out immersive role-play -- but
I believe the shift we're seeing in DAoC (where people are
"relieved" the game isn't overrun by twinks) is already an
indication that the gaming populace at large is maturing and less
accepting of "if it bleeds, we can kill it" behavior.

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

P.S. Don't you just hate it when you're gone on business and fall a
week behind on a thread?  >:P

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev