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Old 07-31-2008, 02:57 PM   #1
Throttle
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Join Date: Aug 2007
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Huge development projects that never finish

The last three MUDs that I've played extensively have all run into a common problem, and I figured I'd bring it up for discussion. The issue in question is that the administration embarks on a major project that will drastically change the game, taking up most of their resources for long periods of time, but which inevitably ends up being postponed into eternity. Meanwhile the playerbase suffers from the lack of staff support due to the developers spending all their time working on this project that seemingly never finishes, from a lack of motivation to play the current game with the knowledge that everything will change in the "coming soon!" project that they've been promised for up to two years or more, and from the general dissatisfaction of having to wait an unreasonably long time. The MUDs tend to end up losing a lot of their appeal when this happens and the game could easily die out if enough players leave that the adminstration doesn't feel compelled to finish whatever project it is they've started.

I'm sure this must have happened on other MUDs as well. I found it uncanny that it happened on all three MUDs where I've been an established player in the past few years, and I wonder if it happens because MUD owners are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with the growing number of MMORPGs and feel that they need to make huge changes to their game in order to keep their playerbase.

Has this happened to a MUD that you play on? How do you think the above situation can be prevented? Is it better to implement changes and new content gradually rather than tie up all the administrative resources in huge projects that take much longer to complete than anticipated? What's the best way to keep the playerbase from losing interest if things have grown stagnant due to developers biting off more than they can chew?
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