[MUD-Dev] Boredom

[Matt Chatterley]

On Fri, 24 May 2002, Ben Chambers wrote:

> What do you do to prevent players getting bored?  It is inevitable
> that at some point they will become so good that the areas and
> monsters you have made just don't challenge them... Generated
> quests just won't be difficult enough, and you won't be able to
> churn out new areas to explore and new scripted/programmed quests
> to do.  How do you keep a player like that entertained?

This is a question which I'm looking at currently -- or at least,
part of an issue I'm tackling. I'm wondering how to keep players
interested and to keep the nature of the game changing-but-the-same
-- to balance things so that there is less monotony, but so that the
players are not constantly bombarded with gallons of new information
to absorb.

Elements of my game will be centered around researching,
experimenting with and testing new spells, interactive training of
skills, and exploration of a game world -- as well as event and plot
based situations (such as major plot related quests, minor quests
etc) -- for instance, a small war might break out over part of the
lands, or a group of raiders might keep attacking a port. Trade will
also be an area of interest to some (I hope), and the random nature
of some trade routes (bandits, poor weather .. ) as well as the
variation in supply and demand routes should keep those guys on
their toes!

In short, I'm looking to create a game world which pulls the players
along with it, but also which is shaped to some extent by the player
actions (as the heroes of the game, they might ransack some of the
towns, and protect others from attackers .. who knows which will end
up being ruins within a few months?).

--Matt

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