View Single Post
Old 12-05-2011, 02:53 PM   #18
KaVir
Legend
 
KaVir's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Name: Richard
Home MUD: God Wars II
Posts: 2,052
KaVir will become famous soon enoughKaVir will become famous soon enough
Re: "End game" content?

That's not the point I was trying to make with my analogy. Consumable content is like a fish in that you give it to someone, they eat it, then they're hungry again afterwards (and you have to go catch a new fish). Open-ended content is like a fishing rod in that you give it to someone, and after that they can catch their own fish.

If the fish/fishing analogy is confusing then ignore it, it's not important. The point I'm making is that end-game content really needs to be open-ended, because consumable content isn't sustainable when created by staff - you simply can't produce it as fast as the players consume it, so they'll inevitably run out of things to do.

For normal character advancement this isn't a big deal, it's not as if players are going to be hanging around level X for a long period of time - you just need enough to keep them entertained until they progress to level X+1. But once they reach the top they're going to stay there until they quit, so the content needs to be something that'll keep them coming back.

The distinction I'm making is between creating content directly, and providing players with the tools to entertain themselves. A good example of the latter would be TinyMUD, which allows players to build and create their own rooms, objects, and puzzles. Lars Pensjö also tried to incorperate that same flexibility when he created LPMud (although in LPMud such tools are typically limited to wizards).

Even the big graphical muds seem to be catching on. City of Heroes had some initial teething problems when it first introduced player-generated content, yet within 24 hours their players had created more content than the entire development team had created during the game's five year existence.

While such content is still technically consumable, the advantage is that the players are creating it as well as consuming it - and the creation can provide just as much entertainment as the consumption. It's sustainable, and therefore suitable as end-game content.

And of course you can also make similar arguments about things like roleplaying and PK - they're open-ended activities which, when supported with appropriate tools, allow the players to create their own sustainable entertainment. You might still run special events, but on a good RP mud the players will arrange their own activities as well.

Entertainment, the same as every feature designed for player consumption. A static hand-written quest that rewards you upon completion will provide little entertainment relative to the amount of effort required to create it. On the other hand, a well-designed minigame could keep players entertained for many hours.

And while my analogy wasn't intended literally, I guess the quest reward could be a fish, and the minigame could be a fishing game.

Most players won't stay forever, no matter what you offer. But giving them a decade (or even just a few years) of entertainment is pretty cool when you think about it, particularly when it's free - compare that with how long most people spend playing a typical video game that they've spent hard cash on.
KaVir is offline   Reply With Quote