[MUD-Dev] Removing the almighty experience point...

[Tim Schubert]

Vincent Archer wrote....
> According to Adam Burr:
>> On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 17:43:53 +0200, Vincent Archer
>> <archer at frmug.org> wrote:

>>> Achievements are used to measure your prowess, game knowledge,
>>> mastery of your class, interaction with other players, whatever.
>>> Each achievement is individual and unique. A repeat of the exact
>>> same circumstances means nothing.

>> This is what really makes it different from an XP system, it
>> seems to me. Otherwise what you describe is also accomplished by
>> having monsters/activities go "grey"- where you get no XP for
>> killing or doing them. Thus they need to find a new
>> "achievement"- level appropriate mobs..

> The initial proposal came from the discussion around the evils of
> "grinding", in the context of World of Warcraft....

The question that remains a grey area for me is if this differs from
having an XP system where prescribed content can get you enough
experience to level.  IE what if there were always missions that got
you enough experience to grow from level N to level N+1.  Would that
really be a different metric then the achievements or just a
different granularity?  Remember - the value of experience obtained
at levels where that content wasn't intended is often reduced,
therefore less desirable and avoided by players already.

Players grind because they follow the path of least resistance to
level N.  If you want players to consume your content, make sure it
is the most efficient route to levelling.  Of course there is still
those players that may actually enjoy the grind more then missions,
anyway.  There's more chance to screw around and relax after a
hellacious day IRL when you're doing something mindless like
clubbing flocks of rabid penguins with your friends.

Travel time, xp loss from death, and logistics (IE healing up after
a fight) all count as lost time in terms of efficiency.  Grinding by
camping can be tuned by players to avoid those time sucks for
maximum efficiency but they can't tune missions/content//etc.
That's up to the developers and its a hard problem to even those out
(should missions/etc just be vastly better XP to ensure they're
favored?).  The players just find a faster growth routes then we
prescribe and cheat themselves out of much tirelessly developed
gameplay, which is simply tragic - especially if they get bored and
quit!

Ideas:

  Have players gain experience just by having an account open.  It
  gains slow but there's little effort involved so efficiency is
  still high.  Added bonus: a player that takes a break finds
  themself advanced meaningfully when they get back to the game.

  Have gameplay content that gives XP besides quests/missions -
  minigames and the like.


  Embrace the grind: Survivor battles against waves of mobs in an
  arena somewhere.  More dynamic AI to keep players on their toes.
  Monster hunting missions with good bonuses.  Emphasize the
  gambling aspect of monster hunting with loot drops.  Have bashing
  contests between players to see who can cook the most weiner dogs
  in 5 minutes...

  Make it pay off substantially better to hunt substantailly harder
  stuff - killing a really hard monster is practically a quest in
  itself.  Its still the grind, but its far more interesting.

-- Tim Schubert
MMPOG Developer LFJob
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