[silvarilon]

How about an article about how games are becoming more and more developer intensive.

With all the (beautiful) graphics and animation, every second of gameplay becomes more expensive for the developers. Unless they give repetitive gameplay. Which means games are either becoming shorter, or they are becoming more procedural.

Being only text, it's very easy to add new elements to the game. Around December, players wanted some sort of christmas activities, so in half an hour, we had pine trees coded, where the players could chop down the pine trees, and add decorations. To add something to a graphical game like WoW would be a significant task - in a mud (with the right coders) it can be trivial.

That allows a huge amount of responsiveness from the game staff towards player ideas. Instead of being limited to specific classes and roles that the designers pre-created, you can find a new niche, and the staff can support you in that.

There really is the potential for every single player to have something unique about themselves, to have a few unique ideas, and even unique abilities.

Obviously, how possible this is, and what staff are willing to allow would vary from game to game, but that potential is always there. And I think it's something most non-mud players don't realize.

Personally, I'm quite proud of the fact that Ironclaw Online *isn't* the game I originally imagined building. It's a game that has been shaped by the players, and has grown into something better for that. I love that we can open up (some) design decisions to the playerbase, and have forum discussions and brainstorming. And I love that individual systems are simple enough that we can give that level of personalized attention.

Useful topic?