[MUD-Dev] Morphable worlds, Reset based systems revisited

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

"Ted L. Chen" <tedlchen at yahoo.com> writes:
> Ola Fosheim Grxstad wrote:
>> "Ted L. Chen" <tedlchen at yahoo.com> writes:
>>> Ola Fosheim Grxstad wrote:

> Actually, no one buys DOOM twice.  If I rearranged the levels in

They bought all the Quakes. Same game, new engine.

> Nerfing isn't only about thinking you're getting less than other
> people.  Instances where across-the-board nerfing occurs
> (cf. Anarchy Online's overequipping changes) still meets with
> resistance just because it's change.

Well, some disliked it because they enjoy beating the
system. I.e. getting-more-than-you-should-achievers, feeling
uber. The implantsystem nurtures achievers.  (It is a pain for
everybody else). Others disliked it because the designers had
increased the difficulty of monsters, effectively making
overequipping necessary to progress at a reasonable rate etc etc
etc. Many was in favor of getting rid of overequipping. I wouldn't
be surprised if many player left the game due to the annoying need
to update equipment. It certainly put me off, and I even have a
professional motivation to "play". Anyway it didn't meet resistance
just because it was change. They feared for their own ability to
progress. You enjoyed the IP reset, didn't you? Obviously players
also complained when AO did not change at a rate they were happy
with.

> And I know you mean relaunches.  But in order to do so, you
> propose to reset everything so that effectively it is a nerf (and
> a might big one at that) to those players that already exist in
> the game.

No, it isn't. It is a new world. It is like playing up a different
class. Players do that! Anyway, I am interested in discussing the
concept of reconfigured relaunches.

  (In the world of pragmatics you would most likely allow some kind
  of XP transfer (perhaps 25%) and let the old server run if it kept
  player from leaving...)

> You gave the mechanism for "improving the world" as you saw it as
> rearranging the entire world, gameplay rules included.  I don't
> agree that's improving the world as it add no value.  It's just a
> reset with tweaks.  Much like I never felt I got any new content
> when Tradewars reset - even if it was a new world.

SimCity would probably be a better example. At some point the world
is a big mess or too predictable and stable. You would like to reset
the world with some new tiles, some new welldesigned scenarios and
some new interesting dynamics.

> a simple thing like a new bread type in Everquest is new content
> if I'm a baker.

Which is rather sad...

> If my utility centers around my possessions (as it does in most
> current MOGs) then anything that causes me to lose all that,
> excluding my my own actions, is definately not content.

So, socializing is not what prevents you from jumping to a new game
then.

> It is just a reset.

Actually, you are talking about worlds which are inherently boring
threadmills... You don't stay in them because they are good, but
because you don't want to accept that the effort invested was a bad
investment and a lot of wasted time...?

--
Ola - http://folk.uio.no/olag/

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