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Old 10-17-2003, 02:11 AM   #16
the_logos
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Mill Valley, California
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Sorry about the multiple responses. I couldn't let this pass though upon re-reading it.

I quite like to read. However, if Lord of the Rings was full of paragraph-long descriptions of every single section of landscape that Frodo went through I think I'd throw the book in the garbage. Because muds aren't experienced linearly like a book is though, and because you never know WHICH descriptions players will read, you do have to have them all there. But to expect all your players to read them all just says to me that a developer is designing for himself rather than for the players -- a trait rightly considered to be the sign of an immature designer. Goes hand in hand with a desire to "beat" the players rather than provide them with meaningful challenges that they can feel good about overcoming.

The fact is, almost nobody wants to read endless descriptions of a forest or an ocean. You can quibble with me if you like because I know that you're mainly concerned with arguing rather than truth, but that's just the way people are.

Rule of thumb: Try to design for the way players play, not the way you think they should play.

--matt
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