[MUD-Dev] Re: Bringing in friends

[Pat Ditterline]

Just commenting on one specific thing here:

From: Amanda Walker <amanda at alfar.com>

> [...] The main piece of d20 mechanics that I think MMOd20s miss is
> the ability to bring in a new player midstream.  "OK, roll up a
> level 25 character, give me an equipment list."  "OK, guys, while
> you're having your "no shit, there we were" session at the tavern,
> so-and-so comes up to you and says "I couldn't help
> overhearing..." and going from there.

> That one ability, with no other changes to game mechanics, would
> probably have kept me playing (and paying for) EQ or DAoC, because
> it would have preserved the essential "fun-ness" of d20 gaming for
> me, namely, spending an evening with friends trading wisecracks
> and obscure book and movie references.  In various discussions
> about this topic, I've never quite understood why my desire to
> join a group of friends in-game should be sacrificed to someone
> else's desire to grind.

I understand that this is a problem, and bringing in friends at your
level would be nice.  But pen and paper games are controlled by
their nature, in that someone is running the game and on some level
chooses who joins.  Yes, you can bring in a friend at any point to
play by having him/her roll up a character, which is great, and
lacking in EQ or DAoC and the like.  But what if the annoying
13-year-old down the street rolled up a character at your level or
higher and you HAD to let him play?  Online games don't just let
your friends play, they let everyone play.  It affects more than you
and your group of friends when high level people can show up in the
world at a whim.

I think another problem is that if people could choose to be the
highest level from the start, many of them would.  And then they'd
get bored.  It's like playing a single-player game with a god-mode
cheat...  it's fun, but it can make the game boring from then on.
Cheating in a single-player game is the player's choice and doesn't
affect anyone but him if he's all powerful.  But jumping to an
arbitrary level in an online game affects the society of the game,
since some people have acheived a certain levels and others were
given the level for free.

And really, you can catch people up in many of these games, and yes
it involves grinding but it's possible.  I've had friends join me in
Everquest, and a quick powerlevelling and donation of some money can
get them flying to high levels relatively quickly (although I'll
admit that "relatively" in EQ can still be a long time).  If you're
playing more casually, and you're not as high of a level, it's that
much faster to catch up.
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev