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Old 02-27-2004, 09:09 PM   #14
TG_Hammar
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Plymouth, Indiana USA
Posts: 30
TG_Hammar is on a distinguished road
First a short history on myself: I started online gaming, both MUD and RTS about 8 years ago. The RTS was Age of Empires and its later generations. What I loved most about the Age games was the documentation and formulas already worked out on the Shai'tan clan website and the Mr Fixit Online website. I later was even an online multiplayer beta tester for the Star Wars Battlegrounds RTS. This information I was able to get online helped me develop my skills more rapidly than I would have been able to on my own otherwise. I am a very busy person as many are and when faced with time issues some things suffer and spending hundreds of hours playtesting in scenarios to develop strategies just to get a minor edge is not a wise choice. So, I would say fairly that without their help I would never have played enough to get as good as I was/am, I would have become bored with the game and moved on. As it was I got good, then better then faster and eventually could hang with some of the top RTS gamers that have graced the gaming Zone over the years. Now in the same time frame I was struggling on a MUD with a theme I was familiar with, but it had terrible help files. If it were not for the massive number of newbie helpers I would have dumped them on day one. Later on I left them for my current MUD after they had 2 pwipes in 6 months.

Short version of advice:

If your MUD has more emphasis on RP, give the players as much help as is possible so they can spend more time in character and less chopping up mobiles (or players) to get what they need. Keep in mind to hold back just enough information so that it cannot be duplicated easily.

If your mud is more Hack'n'Slash/PK oriented then your secrets will have to be more closely guarded. Since the strength of your MUD depends more on code and less on live persons and charisma, you have more to lose and easier ways to lose them. I would still suggest giving as much help as possible, and well documented, easy to understand help files. Just make sure that the information you give out does not contain any specifics that can be easily translated into another MUD.

When in doubt, err on the side of the players. Without happy MUDders we are all screwed anyways.
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