Week 8 Reading Notes - Players who suit MUDs

MUDs (Multi-User Domain) are text-based games which combine elements of role-playing games, PVP, interactive fiction and online chat. Players would read or view descriptions of their locations and their surroundings, inlcuding other players and NPCs, and they would then perform actions in this virtual world to achieve their individual goals. MUDs were practically the predecessors to genres such as MMORPGs

Two types of playing styles:

Interaction - Focused in the players

. Players who Socialise (Socialises)

. Players who impose on others (Killers)

Action - Focused on the environment

. Players who look to achieve (Achievers)

. Players who look to explore (Explorers)

He describes these players as a set of cards:

Killers = Clubs because they club players

Socialises = Hearts because they empathise with others

Explorers = Spades because they dig around the game world

Achievers = Diamonds because they're constantly searching for goods

1) Achievements within game content

Achievers in the games are always trying to accomplish tasks and claim their rewards, they will always be focused non the task at hand, without worrying about their teammates.

2) Exploration of the game

Explorers enjoy exploring the game world and finding out new things about it, they are not as concerned with skill and levelling up but enjoy other aspects of the game.

3) Socialising with others

Socialises tend to say things like "Things aren't going well with my boyfriend", always looking for new relationships and only playing the games to hang around talking to people instead of playing.

4) Imposition upon others

PVP players tend to be very aggressive, constantly starting fights with other players to fulfil their own goals or just for fun.

Relationships

Achievers see other Achievers as competition, trying to steal their future achievements. In doing so the other players are much less important.

Killers like to have Achievers as their pray, because killing them matters a lot considering the game is so important to Achievers. It means something to kill them.

Explorers don't have as much desire to fight so they won't fight back against killers, but if they do fight back they may have an unknown skill to use against the killer; they could find strange skills which were hidden around the game world, so killers may be more cautious when attacking them.

It's different these days, as the game types have completely changed in modern multiplayer games. Killers want to kill other killers for more of a challenge, and they would find Achievers too easy to provide a sufficient challenge. It's also more important these days to mix and match with all the different gameplay styles in order to get the most out of the game.

Balance

If you have more killers in comparison to socialisers, the socialisers would then leave due to them constantly being killed when trying to talk to others.

If the game becomes too unbalanced, all of the players would start to leave the game.

These days the balancing issues are much less so, for example, World of Warcraft has become very balanced over the years, and this is probably one of the reasons for its tremendous success. There are specific places for all of the different players to play the game fairly.

My Thoughts

Though this article is interesting, the subject matter is fairly outdated and therefore a lot of elements mentioned are no longer as apparent in modern games. MUDs seemed to be a huge starting point for modern MMORPG game design, and because of them, matters such as gameplay balancing and relationships were brought to light.

It was a good article, and I'm sure that if I were to design a game which utilized any of the elements talked about then it would be very helpful.