Question
 

A question for all of you mudders:
Let's say... you've played a mud long enough that you know every area and which part of an area any mob can be found. You know every skill and spell, when to use it, and whether it's worthwhile to use. You can predict with high accuracy who will win a PvP fight if you know a few basic details about each character. You know every feature of the mud, and perhaps even scripted/automated the few unfun features.

Basically, after you know nearly everything about the mud, are you still able to play it and enjoy it? Or is there something to be said about the excitement of discovery and improvement that is needed to keep you logging in?

Re: Question
 

I'd say the MUD suffers from a serious lack of new content. If the MUD stopped updating long enough, or updated irregularly enough, or was just uncomplicated enough that you could easily learn everything about it, then yeah, I'd start to lose interest. Still, I think the number one thing that keeps players on any MUD, rather than the game itself, is the community. Have a good one, and you'll at least keep a dedicated handful of players, even on the most horribly un-entertaining of games. Still, there's gotta' be at least something to the game there, or we'd all be hanging around in IRC, not on MUDs.

Just my two bits.
-Kereth

Re: Question
 

What Kereth said. I like places that put importance on freshness of roleplay rather than code, but I really enjoy exploring that side as well. If a place has more code than rp, for me it had better be pretty engaging and not too repetitive. Too, it helps if there's players who'll help out with advice and a bit of company. Once I've 'beaten' all levels, or even figured out a system to how, there's not much to hold my interest so I prefer rp-driven games or ones where there's at least a bunch of player interaction, as the unexpected comes more frequently via the human factor.

Re: Question
 

If your focus in a MUD is to uncover all the coded stuff, as fast as possible, and max the coded part of the character (skills, levels, stats) out, then basically once you do that, you win. Game over.

If your focus in a MUD is to uncover plotlines, create them, gain in power through the roleplayed manipulations of your character into positions of influence, then the game will never be over, because that stuff changes constantly.

You can have a stagnant coded game world and still have a thrilling living game. It all depends on what you want to do while you're in it, AND on what the game admin's focus is.

Re: Question
 

Depends on the MUD and its mechanics. This is why, in my opinion, achievement in MUDs needs to depend as much on player ability as character skill. It ensures that there will always be a challenge.

Re: Question
 

I agree almost 100%, the exception being a game where achievement and success depends upon players' ability to use the game's mechanics. EG: The outcome of a PvP battle is determined as much by a player's ability to use his character's skills/resources as it is the skills/resources the character has.

Re: Question
 

I think it really depends on what you like and how much you like the game. I have played many games (stand alone or xbox) to the finish and replayed them. As for muds, it would depend on the MUD. On NW, you can't really win as it is a high end roleplaying game where success is based on your interaction with others as well as your own personal gains. It is very complex.

I do believe as others have said that a MUD needs to be a little dynamic in that things change. On NW, the creation team changes things all the time without the knowledge of the players. It is part of the game dynamic to have subtle modifications to areas and the game and part of the policy for the players to find out everything in character. We don't provide area updates (unless you find them in the game) beyond the global map on the website. Nor do we provide notifications on changes that revolve around roleplay or what you could find out in character. It tends to keep things more interesting.

Re: Question
 

Have you by any chance read: ?

Depending on a person's focus on mudding you'll get different answers to your question.

I find it difficult to truly know nearly everything about a mud. I can enjoy doing things that would seem pointless to a very driven competitive mudder. For example, if most players get the UBER WEAPON of DEATH, then I'll purposely not use that weapon and see if it's possible to go slay the BIG BADDIE MONSTER with the ALMOST UBER WEAPON of DEATH or what would happen if I tried using a very ordinary weapon?

Long ago, one mud's coder/owner explosed me to the notion of trying out little experiments. He showed me that even if you know the code backwards and forwards there are ways to challenge and amuse yourself.

So for me, game content does not need to change too often if a mud is already well developed because there are usually facets of a game few players truly explore. If I really feel as if there's nothing left for me to learn and I love a mud, I'll go wander off and play a different style of mud for awhile. Usually if I wait long enough, when I return to the first mud, I will have forgotten enough things and have the pleasure of discovering them anew!