[Kereth]

Call it what you want, whether it's heartbeat exp, roleplay bonuses, or whatever, a lot of MUDs like to give players exp just for logging in and sitting around doing nothing. So what effect does this have on gameplay?

Now, obviously, it does wonders for making the MUD look good, seeming to prosper even when it isn't. If you give exp just for idling, a natural side-effect is that players will be logged in at all times, just gathering up that idle-exp. This makes for a fantastic boost to MUD player count numbers, as the average number of players logged in may be almost equal to the total number who play at all (whereas one MUD might have 60 players who log in now and then, they'll only show maybe 20 online at a time, but if all log in all the time and stay idle, they've tripled their number). This looks fantastic to new players, who if given two MUDs of similar concept, but one has 20 players at a time and the other has 60, will often choose the higher populated one, because hey, everyone else likes it, don't they? And of course, for those MUDs with no obvious multi-play rules, one player may have several characters on idling at all times, multiplying the player totals artificially even further (Yes, I've seen MUDs like this too).

Any thoughts? And beyond that, how much does this free exp (or even free money, in many cases) help or hurt ordinary play value? Should more MUDs adopt such a system? Or should they consider laying off the idea entirely?

-Kereth Midknight

[shadowfyr]

Rather depends on the game mechanics. If the game relies heavily on combat, then, imho, this would bound to be bad news. If exp for say.. general skills, where kept separate, then one could have the system let you get better "ancient writings" or some such from it, which would have an "impact" on some game mechanics, like crafting, without having the "same" impact as you could get from actually "doing" the crafting. Example - improving that might allow making better magical scrolls, but not improve the "success" of actually doing so.

Ironically though, I haven't been playing text much, but fiddling with second life, and in there they have a combat system called CCS. This usually gives out about 5 exp per five minutes, sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on whose area you are in. Right now, due to a redo of the experience tables and a remort, we are being given 6 per five minutes, to make up for some of the lost levels this caused. But, the system has to work this way, since the overhead on the server side is.. idiotic, at this point (a lot of the mechanics of texture handling and object rendering is done server side, then pushed through to the client, due to needing to at least "try" to protect people's ownership of the content), which means no NPCs, monsters, etc, and thus.. the only means to make exp is to either a) kill other people, or b) ticking it. Since the former is just stupid, and undermines RP, the later is done instead. Its.. really a pain sometimes, even in this context, since you get a few people, like one Arch-Demon, who is so strong he is almost impossible to defeat, even if 50 people are trying to kill him, (And that much script activity/people/guns firing, etc. makes it almost impossible to fight anyway.), for no other reason than he spent a "lot" of time logged into the region. It.. badly screwed game mechanics imho, even when unavoidable, since, especially where everything is basically PVP, people can do anything they damn well please, within the limits allowed, including bordering on godmodding, and get by with it, since you don't represent "any" sort of real threat at all.

[Ide]

I'd be interested in some specific examples here, because most if not all of the time bonus systems I've seen don't work when you're idling, or it doesn't matter if you idle or not. You get RPXP when you RP obviously, so you're not idle there (unless you count waiting for the other person to respond as idling). Flat timed XP systems usually just award XP on a weekly or monthly basis (more typical in mushes, true), and the other timed rewards I've seen ignore idle/afk time in their calculation.

On the other hand maybe you have a different definition of idling -- does some common chitchat between characters count as idling? I'd say no, but if you say yes I can see your point.

I think timed bonuses have some good effects other than PR (which isn't a bad effect at all really). Mainly they partially level the playing field between people who have many hours to spend on a mud and more casual players. Usually casual players will get left out of the mix simply because they can't grind (or bot) for whatever reason, and I think in general a mud will do itself a disservice if it doesn't try to make a game good for casual players.

Of course some muds, RPIs maybe, won't care as much about casual players. But even in a RPI timed bonuses can help, as it can be difficult to adequately or semi-objectively reward the quality of someone's RP. A timed bonus is a neutral reward which benefits most PCs.

[Kereth]

A few examples of MUDs that spawned this context are in order then. We'll take two of the more popular ones that I have had experience with: NewWorlds and Discworld.

Discworld is just flat "heartbeat exp." Basically, you slowly tick exp as long as you're logged in. It's not nearly as fast as farming, particularly at later levels, but it's enough that it makes it worth your while to sit and idle, and yes, you don't have to do anything at all, not chatting or moving around. If you're logged in, you get heartbeat exp. I think the game will kick you if you idle too long though, probably as a control, and triggers and scripts are forbidden there, so using something to keep you idle and logged in would be cheating.

NewWorlds, on the other hand, gives exp and cash out in chunks every set number of hours spent logged in. It's a lot slower accumulation though, compared to Discworld. They call this the "Roleplaying bonus." They also have an "mia" command that lets you stay connected, and their multiplaying rules permit two characters to be owned by a single player and logged in at the same time (with certain restrictions).

Both are fairly large muds (by reported player base size, though of course, that has to be taken in stride with the effects of idle exp). You can track the basic information from the listing on here, I'm sure.

[The_Fury]

In The Oriental Dojo, we have (not implemented fully yet, its what im working on today) a system that i call the Practice Dummy, within a players house is a Practice Dummy, it is useful for making out skills and spells as well as earning experience while AFK. The amount of experience earned is equal to about 1 kill per 10 minuites, its a trickle, but level gains take a fair amount of time and this is a nice little bonus, just for maxing out your skills. It is also a reason not to bot the rest of the game, which has survere penelties.

[Orrin]

Whether idle xp is a good or a bad thing is likely to depend on other elements of your design.

On Maiden Desmodus players will be able to select one skill at a time to train and this skill will improve gradually over time while their character is in the game. The rate of skill gain will be very low and I don't expect it to be the primary means of skill advancement, however it will still add up over time. With this system I want players to feel that their character is progressing each time they visit the game.

[Zhiroc]

I've just about stopped feeling like playing anything that doesn't use time-based advancement (TBA)--this isn't "rest XP": you get XP/character points simply by existing, logged in or not. Of course, I play MUSHes, where the point isn't combat but RP. If it wasn't TBA, it would probably be a nominate/vote system, so there still wouldn't be an "accomplishments-based" XP system anyways.

And even if combat is a primary concern... I'll mention Eve Online, which is probably considered the "best" PvP MMOG out there at the moment. I don't play it, mostly because I can't stand PvP, but it uses TBA for its skill system. It has a subscription base of around 200K players.

[KaVir]

In Last City (my old WoD RP mud) I awarded exp the first time you logged on each day, and again for your first hour of play each day. I didn't view it as idle exp, but rather as playing exp - if someone wanted to idle for it they obviously could, but most people would spend their time roleplaying, socialising, exploring, building or fighting. It basically let people decide what they wanted to do with their online time, rather than forcing them to grind specific activites.

I think my inspiration mainly came from the LARP games I played around the same time, where you earned 1 exp for every session you attended, regardless of what you did. You could simply turn up and sit at the bar if you wanted to - but if you weren't interested in playing, you had no real reason to care about exp anyway.

GodWars Deluxe also gives 1 exp per second, but it's such a trivial amount that it's almost meaningless. It did seem to encourage newbies to hang around longer though.

[Burrytar]

Exp is not a reward if it fails to grant access to something a player actually wants. If empty exp cannot influence the behavior of players, then it cannot influence gameplay. (It could influence the behavior of players if total exp is scarce and empty exp is analogous to hoarding.) What this means for idlers is that they are ultimately brought back to the game by expectations of what they can do in the game -- by the promise that there is a reason not to idle.

So idlers who routinely come back to the game probably fall in two camps:
1) People who want to play this game but have to leave the game to sustain that lifestyle.
2) People who don't want to play this game, but do want to play a different game that they see as accessible only by playing this game.

In the first case, you need a good idea of what the idler thinks of as "this game" in order to know whether idle exp is a good or bad thing. A person who enjoys the game may be miffed that when they come back the exp has pushed them into a different game, or they may be glad that they haven't been pulled back into a different game (such as being drastically lower rank than their friends).

In the second case, idle exp is probably a good thing, so long as it only changes the game significantly for the person who doesn't enjoy the current game. Even if the change turns out to be much worse than they expected, so long as the cost of getting there was insignificant, then the information adds to their ability to choose what to do next: press on, start over, or go elsewhere.