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Old 08-02-2008, 05:45 AM   #8
Molly
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Sweden
Home MUD: 4 Dimensions
Posts: 574
Molly will become famous soon enoughMolly will become famous soon enough
Re: Huge development projects that never finish

It's happened in my Mud too, over the years - several times.

One problem that hasn't been touched so far is that players in general dislike changes. They may say - or even think - that they like them, but in most case they don't.

So the developers are left with the choice of two evils: Leave the Mud and it is, in which case the players might get bored and leave. Or implement the changes, in which case the players might leave because they dislike the changes. In both cases you are screwed.

Going is usually a bit rough after a large change. Some players may leave because of it, and you can only hope that they'll return later. Others will whine a lot, but gradually get adjusted. And there still are some players who will nostalgically speak about how much more fun the Mud was to play back in the old days, 'before all the changes'. (Probably this is due to the fact that they remember the time when the Mud was fresh and new to them. No matter how good a Mud is, players eventually will become a bit bored. The changes are supposed to make them less bored, but it doesn't always work as intended).

We usually discuss any larger changes with the players before deciding on them, and try to work at least some of the the input from the players into the change. Often these discussions can rage for weeks and months on the Discussion Forums. Sometimes the discussions lead to a better understanding for the change, and sometimes the input from the players is so good that the planned changed can be majorly improved. But you cannot please everybody, since obviously you must keep track of the goals that you want to achieve with the change in the first place. And there are always some players - usually the same ones - who are totally negative to the entire idea.

Another problem is that each change often leads to a number of initially unplanned additional changes, just like Newworlds mentioned. Even a reasonably limited code change often has extensive impact on the zones in the game, which the Coders didn't foresee. Adapting the zones usually takes a lot more time and grunt work than Code changes. And since building and coding in a Mud usually is done by different persons, the Builders might not be nearly as enthusiastic about the change as the Coders - especially not if they weren't asked about it initially. Meaning that they will work reluctantly, if at all.

Another major problem with a big change occurs, if the key person that originally initiated it would tire of the work in the middle of the change, or leave the Mud for some other reason before it is completed. Usually a big change needs someone dedicated to keep all the threads together and really drive it, and without this extra push and drive it's likely to fizzle out and die.

So yeah - swallowing an elephant in small pieces is usually easier on the stomach. And if the change is scheduled to take a long time - maybe more than a year - it's probably better not to inform the players at all, until it's advanced so far that you are reasonably sure that it will be implemented at all.
Why upset the players over something that might never even happen?
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