Re: Community survey: What do MUD players want?
 

That is often true. Players are players for a reason, and not game designers. So they sometimes want things that they don't know would actually be bad for the game and reduce enjoyment.

My strategy is to try and figure out what the desire is behind the request. What kind of experience are they seeking? Sometimes by looking at it that way I can make use of an idea even if the pure form isn't so hot.

Then there are times, of course, when players submit ideas that are straight up awesome. I love when that happens.

More common is when a player submits an idea that is similar to something we'd already been kicking around. When that happens, we take it as confirmation that it is a good idea since players and staff had the same idea.

Re: Community survey: What do MUD players want?
 

I think it's very difficult to generalise. If the suggestions involve making your game more accessable to first-time players, for example, then newbies can offer you extremely valuable insight into their perspective.

It's also worth remembering that even mud developers like to play other peoples games sometimes - perhaps for inspiration, or to check out the competition, or even just to take a break from their own projects. For all you know, that level 1 player might be a more experienced mud developer than you are.

Of course I'm not suggesting you should blindly implement every suggestion a newbie throws your way, but I also think it's a missed opportunity if you ignore them outright just because they happen to be low level. Some of my most popular features were inspired by player suggestions.

Re: Community survey: What do MUD players want?
 

KaVir and Threshold,

I agree pretty much completely with both of you. It's not that I blindly ignore player suggestions, and in fact a lot of stuff that gets added/fixed does come from players. It's just that the chaff/wheat ratio is shockingly low most of the time, and tends to be substantially lower at lower levels.

First pass filtering is usually pretty easy - if the player uses proper grammar and (for non-blind players) proper spelling, their ideas are at least an order of magnitude more likely to be useful. Bonus pretzels if they have reasoning for it beyond "this would be cool".

-dentin

Alter Aeon MUD

Re: Community survey: What do MUD players want?
 

In order to get me to even try playing, a MUD has to have a clearly identifiable difference from all of the other MUDs out there. There has to be something at the very core that is special and will make the experience of playing it something unique.

If a MUD is set in a medievalish world with Elves and Dwarves, I am particularly unlikely to even have a look at it. The description of such a MUD had really better stress why playing it is going to feel so very different from playing all the other MUDs.

Re: Community survey: What do MUD players want?
 

I , myself, and others that I know, would be happy with a Game that's run by an impartically fair Staff that's not swayed by friendships with-in the player base--unlike a Game we all (my friends) once played .

But something that isn't the 'norm' fanasty-wise would be interesting, especially if discovery of the world's past through adventuring is allowed. This in itself would open more plots up on a continuing basis, drawing the players deeper and deeper into the Game World.


Darren Brimhall