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SnowTroll · 01-18-2013, 10:13 AM

Taking this topic on a little bit of a tangent (because 99% of people will agree that it's up to the individual user to regulate his own behavior rather than asking on-line games to code a feature to compensate for his lack of discipline, making this a non-issue), I've noticed that muds very much thrive on, and even expect "addicts."

On nearly every mud I've played, the majority of the playerbase (e.g., the "regulars") is online every day, sometimes for 8 hours or more. They play from work, they play from school, they play from home, they'll go a night without sleeping if there's a good group doing something or if there's a special event of some kind, they'll cut class or even call in sick to work if they're involved in a good group or some serious rp, and on the weekends, they're logged in for nearly 48 continuous hours...they're strange like that. Depending on the type of mud, it's very hard, and in some cases impossible, to be taken seriously as a player if you're not logging in every day.

Disregarding whether these "regular" mud players have a psychological addiction or exhibit unhealthy behaviors (let's just assume that they are in full control of their lives but make the conscious choice to spend a lot of time and energy playing games, fully aware of any consequences), is it a good thing that muds are specifically set up to cultivate these types of players while marginalizing regular computer gamers who would dare to treat an immersive continuous multiplayer RPG as a mere casual hobby worthy of only the occasional login?

01-18-2013, 10:13 AM	#8
SnowTroll Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 183	Re: Vacation mode Taking this topic on a little bit of a tangent (because 99% of people will agree that it's up to the individual user to regulate his own behavior rather than asking on-line games to code a feature to compensate for his lack of discipline, making this a non-issue), I've noticed that muds very much thrive on, and even expect "addicts." On nearly every mud I've played, the majority of the playerbase (e.g., the "regulars") is online every day, sometimes for 8 hours or more. They play from work, they play from school, they play from home, they'll go a night without sleeping if there's a good group doing something or if there's a special event of some kind, they'll cut class or even call in sick to work if they're involved in a good group or some serious rp, and on the weekends, they're logged in for nearly 48 continuous hours...they're strange like that. Depending on the type of mud, it's very hard, and in some cases impossible, to be taken seriously as a player if you're not logging in every day. Disregarding whether these "regular" mud players have a psychological addiction or exhibit unhealthy behaviors (let's just assume that they are in full control of their lives but make the conscious choice to spend a lot of time and energy playing games, fully aware of any consequences), is it a good thing that muds are specifically set up to cultivate these types of players while marginalizing regular computer gamers who would dare to treat an immersive continuous multiplayer RPG as a mere casual hobby worthy of only the occasional login?