[Molly]

I agree, but only partly. I think Boredom is a combination of player preference and the style of the Mud they are playing.

To take a simple example, an avid Roleplayer would be bored to death in a purely hack'n'slash game, while on the other hand a player focused on combat and competition would be bored stiff in a RP enforced mud without any coded combat or other means of advancing your character apart from RP. So the first thing to do as a player is obviously to choose a Mud with a game style that suits your own preferences.

Even so, most players tire of the game after a time, which can be very short or very long, depending on what the game has to offer. Basically, the point where you get bored would be when the game no longer holds any challenges and secrets for you. This could mean a matter of days or weeks, if the game is shallow and mostly or all stock, or it could take years, if the game is a good one, with a well designed world to explore, lots of different challenges, and various things to do apart from just bashing mobs.

There is also a vast difference between RP focused Muds, and the more competitive type of games, where the main goal is to advance your character 'physically', getting as powerful as possible.

To a RP intense Mud the player base is essential, both the size and the quality. Not only is it important that there are enough other players around to roleplay with, the roleplay also has to hold a decent quality. You also need to be able to find the players that you want to roleplay with, meaning that the world shouldn't be too big, and there needs to be some obvious and frequented meeting places. Some RP Muds are very cliquish. Even if there are lots of players on line, they often stick to small groups, and roleplay only with a few chosen friends. This could make it very hard for a new player to find someone to interact with, even if they actively try, which in turn might lead to them losing interest.

Muds with at least an element of hack'n'slash are less dependent on the playerbase. You can always amuse yourself by exploring, or bashing some Mobs, even if there are few other players on line. In fact most hack'n'slash Muds can be played as a single-player game. But even so, things are a lot more interesting with other players around. It doesn't have to be hundreds of them, some people actually prefer smaller Muds, where you get to know the players better. But obviously the game gets more interesting if you have some company - someone to group with when you go hunting, someone to compete with, someone to brag to and above all someone to chat with between the killings.

The social life is extremely important in a Mud. Our players spend most of their time just hanging out in the central meting place, called Recall point, or chatting over OOC channels. Even long after they tired of actively playing the game, they log on just to chat away some time with friends. Typically players that quit years ago, suddenly turn up again, often in the middle of the night, while a bit drunk. The social ties are a lot stronger as a magnet than the game itself.

The trick to keep the player interest up as long as possible is to provide them with long- and short-term goals, and if possible with several alternate ways of reaching those goals. The most common goal is of course to become the strongest player in the game, and having PK ladders is probably a good way to keep them from getting bored. Some players have their own goals, for instance the Trouble-makers, who like to ferret out and abuse every bug in the code - or the opposite, the ones that faithfully report every bug or typo they come across. Some are natural leaders, and run Clans, others like to help new players. But even the most helpful ones eventually burn out. Perhaps it's the strain of having to answer the same stupid questions day after day. Then we have the collectors, who collect jewels, flowers, or just scalps. And of course the creative ones, who usually end up as builders.

Sometimes I wonder if players really know what they want. The funny thing is that even though most player claim that they hate hack'n'slash, (or levelling, grinding or whatever you call the repetitive acts you go through to advance your char), bashing mobs is what most players usually seem to do most of the time. I remember from my own playing says how I used to find some hack'n'slash to be a good way of unwinding after a stressful day, just because it was so repetitive. Some players keep it up for hours and hours, levelling like crazy. But of course, eventually everybody tires of the grind.

In my Mud we provide lots of other things to do, from minigames to things like farming, gardening, mining and trading, and of course above all questing and exploring. And still most of them stick to the oldfashioned mob-killing. If it weren't for the fact that most of our best equipment is gained from quests, many of them would probably not bother with them. A sure way to rekindle interest is when a new zone opens, that usually gets even the most lazy oldtimers out of Recall for a while. But the main reason for this is probably that they are hoping to find some good equipment before anryone else - or maybe a juicy bug to exploit. (New zones, however carefully you check them, usually have a few bugs).

One definite tendency I've seen is that most our players start out as hack'n'slashers, then turn into explorers/questors, then to Helpers, then to either Pkillers or Roleplayers - (or both) - and finally just squat at recall to talk to friends. The challenge that lasts the longest seems to be PK. Being the Top Dog obviously is a main goal for many.