Thread: The Grind
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Old 07-30-2007, 12:11 PM   #6
Molly
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Sweden
Home MUD: 4 Dimensions
Posts: 574
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Re: The Grind

What we do is to offer alternate ways of advancing that doesn't involve killing mobs at all.

The main ones are Questing, Crafting and Trading, which all give direct exp for the completed transaction. The initial incitement is of course that the players also get Quest Tokens for questing and TradePoints for selling the crafted items and other stuff to certain Trader mobs.

Both Tokens and TradePoints can be used to buy various 'extras', (probably a similar system to what commercial Muds sell for real money). But they can also be converted to exp, and in this way a player who is really into trading can advance through the ranks without killing a single mob.

Trading and TradePoints are relatively new features in our Mud, and hadn't really been a success among the players, until one of our habitual jokers decided to make a demonstration. He spent about two weeks collecting TradePoints systematically, then sat down at Recall Point at a time when many players were on line, and then converted them all into exp, with the result that he remorted about 20 times in a few minutes, without ever leaving Recall.

This definitely made an impact, and for the next days we were spammed with complaints about 'massive bug cheating' from players who had never bothered to read up on TradePoints. Sure, he was slightly aided by a script that gave a somewhat too generous revenue for a couple of items, (and since then has been fixed). But he got most of it in a legit way, and it was a very effective demonstration - so suddenly all the players started collecting TP like crazy.

The effect was similar to when we opened the big Mine a couple of years ago, and all the otherwise lazy players grabbed their shovels and pickaxes and started to dig tunnels all over - or rather under - the Mud, mining for metal ore and precious stones. As long as something is new, and the incitement is big enough, they will do it. After the first novelty has worn off, they will start comparing what they get for the different ways of spending their time, and then settle for doing what 'pays' the most per effective hour. Players are very rational in that way, and if it turns out that grinding is what pays best, they are likely to return to grinding, however much they publicly say that they hate it.

I am not quite sure where it will land yet. We generally try to balance things so that the time spent is a equal as possible, (which isn't easy in the first place). But on the other hand, the players are only really happy when they think that they managed to 'cheat the system', and get more for some action than they really should have gotten. What is a 'bug' to the Admin, is a 'feature' to the players.

Last edited by Molly : 07-30-2007 at 12:25 PM. Reason: removing double paragraph
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