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Valg · 07-30-2007, 09:13 AM

We've tried to resolve the issue via three major efforts:

1) Establish reliable, meaningful means of advancement which have nothing to do with combat, and minimize repetition. Quests are one method used in many games, but we've also made strides into allowing advancement by commerce, exploration, observation, roleplaying, written works, ability development, and miscellaneous achievements. Start with your 'best' characters, try to figure out what makes them the 'best', and make sure your system can reward those behaviors by automatic methods (preferable where practical), or at least by manual oversight. Also, make sure the rewards are useful to all characters, and make sense for the activity. (For example, successful merchants in our game can automatically earn skills like Inspect Goods.) Verify that these activities, performed by an 'expert', offer comparable rates of advancement to traditional methods like combat and now the player is in control of how to spend their time.

2) Allow and encourage player-vs-player competition in some form. Even your most clueless players will provide more interesting competition in the long run, relative to AI. We allow some advancement for doing things like advancing your cabal's goals-- if you seize the Ebony Scepter away from the Scions of Eternal Night, that's worth rewarding. Many of our staff-run quests deliberately pit players against one another, vs. pitting players against NPCs.

3) Make sure combat encourages some level of risk. If fighting an NPC is trivial for your character, your character shouldn't advance much by winning. But if fighting a really tough NPC doesn't provide a lot more reward, people will just keep bashing down that same safe NPC, even if it's slow and boring. Make sure your advancement systems scale appropriately for risk.

If you're running a game where grinding is the best method, people will use it, even if it's boring.

07-30-2007, 09:13 AM	#4
Valg Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Home MUD: Carrion Fields Posts: 643	Re: The Grind We've tried to resolve the issue via three major efforts: 1) Establish reliable, meaningful means of advancement which have nothing to do with combat, and minimize repetition. Quests are one method used in many games, but we've also made strides into allowing advancement by commerce, exploration, observation, roleplaying, written works, ability development, and miscellaneous achievements. Start with your 'best' characters, try to figure out what makes them the 'best', and make sure your system can reward those behaviors by automatic methods (preferable where practical), or at least by manual oversight. Also, make sure the rewards are useful to all characters, and make sense for the activity. (For example, successful merchants in our game can automatically earn skills like Inspect Goods.) Verify that these activities, performed by an 'expert', offer comparable rates of advancement to traditional methods like combat and now the player is in control of how to spend their time. 2) Allow and encourage player-vs-player competition in some form. Even your most clueless players will provide more interesting competition in the long run, relative to AI. We allow some advancement for doing things like advancing your cabal's goals-- if you seize the Ebony Scepter away from the Scions of Eternal Night, that's worth rewarding. Many of our staff-run quests deliberately pit players against one another, vs. pitting players against NPCs. 3) Make sure combat encourages some level of risk. If fighting an NPC is trivial for your character, your character shouldn't advance much by winning. But if fighting a really tough NPC doesn't provide a lot more reward, people will just keep bashing down that same safe NPC, even if it's slow and boring. Make sure your advancement systems scale appropriately for risk. If you're running a game where grinding is the best method, people will use it, even if it's boring.