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dark acacia · 08-13-2013, 05:03 PM

How are you polling your players? Are you simply asking them "Yes or no: is Ateraan still fun?" If you ask the question simply, I suspect that your long time players will reflexively answer "yes" even though they might be dealing with things that reduce the overall purity of their enjoyment (purity in this sense being the difference between a player truly enjoying himself, versus trying to convince themselves that they are having fun). They might consider Ateraan to be The Game of Games no matter what and convince themselves however well that they are having fun, and then answer the simple question accordingly.

Are you asking them to think critically about their session-to-session experiences, and to consider how often they are bored or frustrated with the game. Are they coming back out of habit or loyalty or because they genuinely want to? If they took a week-long break from the game, will they be very enthusiastic about getting back into the game?

I'm asking these questions and provoking discussion not because I want to see the downfall of successful MUDs, but because I've had these issues with games I was stuck in in the past; I kept playing games I wasn't enjoying out of a sense of habit and familiarity. I'd have a terrible time and then I'd hurry to log in again anyway, trying to find that elusive thing which would miraculously make the whole experience worthwhile. Finally prying myself away from habitual gaming, and later adopting a more detached attitude towards new games, has made my gaming time a lot less stressful for me.

Do MUDs really want to keep as many people as they can, even if a significant number of them are just soullessly pounding commands into their clients? Is the level of MUD success truly represented by the number of connections?

I wonder if it would be beneficial for the MUD community to increase inter-game traffic. Encourage people to try out new games (newly released or just new to them) and to shop around, and in the meantime put in that extra effort to make your own MUD that much more fun: help players to increase the purity of fun they have in your game; check in on newbies, talk one-on-one with longtime players now and then, find new ways to improve the game in order to make the game more attractive than a competitor, and so forth.

08-13-2013, 05:03 PM	#7
dark acacia Banned Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 263	Re: Is your game still fun? How are you polling your players? Are you simply asking them "Yes or no: is Ateraan still fun?" If you ask the question simply, I suspect that your long time players will reflexively answer "yes" even though they might be dealing with things that reduce the overall purity of their enjoyment (purity in this sense being the difference between a player truly enjoying himself, versus trying to convince themselves that they are having fun). They might consider Ateraan to be The Game of Games no matter what and convince themselves however well that they are having fun, and then answer the simple question accordingly. Are you asking them to think critically about their session-to-session experiences, and to consider how often they are bored or frustrated with the game. Are they coming back out of habit or loyalty or because they genuinely want to? If they took a week-long break from the game, will they be very enthusiastic about getting back into the game? I'm asking these questions and provoking discussion not because I want to see the downfall of successful MUDs, but because I've had these issues with games I was stuck in in the past; I kept playing games I wasn't enjoying out of a sense of habit and familiarity. I'd have a terrible time and then I'd hurry to log in again anyway, trying to find that elusive thing which would miraculously make the whole experience worthwhile. Finally prying myself away from habitual gaming, and later adopting a more detached attitude towards new games, has made my gaming time a lot less stressful for me. Do MUDs really want to keep as many people as they can, even if a significant number of them are just soullessly pounding commands into their clients? Is the level of MUD success truly represented by the number of connections? I wonder if it would be beneficial for the MUD community to increase inter-game traffic. Encourage people to try out new games (newly released or just new to them) and to shop around, and in the meantime put in that extra effort to make your own MUD that much more fun: help players to increase the purity of fun they have in your game; check in on newbies, talk one-on-one with longtime players now and then, find new ways to improve the game in order to make the game more attractive than a competitor, and so forth.