[MUD-Dev] Instancing

[Douglas Goodall]

ceo wrote:

> IMHO the important detail is the distinction between "force" and
> "encourage". Encouraging socialization isn't quite strong enough,
> because IME a lot of people just ignore your
> encouragements. Rewarding it works a lot better. But there are
> some games that find a fine point somewhere between reward and
> enforcement, that balances the two to the point where everyone
> ends up doing it out of choice :) - hence BEM.

> You are tricking and co-ercing people into doing what you want
> them to do, but it's still entirely up to them and they won't
> (think that they) suffer from not doing it.

Suffering: a matter of degree... To use AO as an example again,
pre-Shadowlands, the best XP was from team missions. However, a
player could still get XP from doing solo missions. Or players
(either solo or in teams) could hunt outdoors. Post-Shadowlands, you
can only hunt outdoors in teams. Nothing else gives decent
XP/SK. Teaming used to be about 1.5-3x the XP of soloing. Now teams
have at least an order of magnitude SK advantage. Soloing is more
likely to get you killed repeatedly (partly due to crazy agro
ranges, "linked" mobs, and sync issues) than giving any XP. And all
the (non-instanced) good camps are already taken by teams with a
long wait to get in (and only if you play a desired class).

Yes, there's alot more community bonds. But I think there's alot to
be said for the nature of those bonds. Whether they are friendly or
rude, whether they are forced or voluntary...

I'm not sure I'd even "encourage" teaming if I was King. I didn't
have to team in CoH at all, and I really, really enjoyed that. I
still spent most of my time in teams, but it was entirely my
choice. I never looked at the numbers, but I suspect I could get as
much (or more) XP solo. In fact, I was slightly *discouraged* from
being in teams, with mobs constantly getting pushed out of melee
range. And in missing Story Arcs by gaining too many levels with too
few missions. Yet I still spent most of my time in teams, and,
presumably, so did most players.

Teaming may be encouraged enough by human nature.

I'm hoping CoH will be successful enough that it will change how
old-school designers think about "community building."
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