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Old 05-21-2007, 10:01 AM   #16
Malifax
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 108
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I agree with you completely about the assassin thing, Shadow. Any professional hit man (or woman) worth his salt will do the deed quickly, cleanly and with squeaky discretion. And any game designer worth his salt will know how to build mechanics to make it possible. Even some dood off the streets you (rhetorical) pay $5000 to kill  your cheating spouse isn't going to walk up and introduce himself. It works a little differently in a text environment than it does in downtown USA, but as I say, any designer with half an imagination can come up with mechanics to get around those barriers.

Likewise, the idea that there aren't penalties in MUDs beyond zapping "points" exhibits pretty narrow thinking. Players in the early GEnie days of Gemstone III feared death like the plague, and there was zero exp or any other numeric penalty involved. It's a very similar rut to the belief that "assassin" is a separate sect of people who are recognizable on sight, or that less than realistic death mechanics in a MUD signals bad design.  I would argue right alongside KaVir that the merit of death and resurrection  as a common occurance in a MUD depends completely on overall game design. Not every game is a RPI.

I think throwing a blanket  over the MUD genre and saying "this is always good" or "that is  always bad" is a pretty ignorant way to look at game design. Not every player wants the same thing out of a game and not every MUD has to have the same goals. Anyone who has done any serious game design knows that there are many different elements required to achieve harmony in a game, and no two designs are ever the same.  The only real way to judge whether the design of a game is good or bad is whether or not people play. If a game is fun, that's all that counts.

As far as advancement sans repetition , I'd be interested in any ideas on how to achieve this while maintaining balance and a sense of accomplishment.
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