September 2004

• Tuplespaces and MUDs J C Lawrence
• • Tuplespaces and MUDs Matt Cruikshank
  • • Dragon Empires is cancelled dienw
    • • Dragon Empires is cancelled ceo
      • • Dragon Empires is cancelled Jim Purbrick
      • Dragon Empires is cancelled OWEN, Matt, FM
      • • Dragon Empires is cancelled Alex Arnon
        • Dragon Empires is cancelled Dana V. Baldwin
      • Dragon Empires is cancelled Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
      • • Room for more? (was Dragon Empires is cancelled) Michael Sellers
        • • Room for more? (was Dragon Empires is cancelled) Lee Sheldon
          • • Room for more? (was Dragon Empires is cancelled) Tamzen Cannoy
            • Room for more? (was Dragon Empires is cancelled) Damion Schubert
            • • Room for more? (was Dragon Empires is cancelled) Lee Sheldon
              • Room for more? (was Dragon Empires is cancelled) zgj22@drexel.edu
        • Dragon Empires is cancelled Jim Purbrick
    • Tuplespaces and MUDs Alex Arnon
  • Tuplespaces and MUDs Zach Collins (Siege)
  • Tuplespaces and MUDs ceo
  • Tuplespaces and MUDs Jim Purbrick
  • Tuplespaces and MUDs Ola Fosheim Grøstad
• Out of Office AutoReply: Distributed State Systems John Borland
• "flat" power treadmill [was: Casual Crowd vs.Time Rich Crowd] HRose
• Cognitively Interesting Combat Mike Rozak
• DGN/TECH: exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info?
• • DGN/TECH: exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
  • DGN/TECH: exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info? Douglas Goodall
  • DGN/TECH: exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info? John MacQueen
  • • DGN/TECH: exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info? HRose
    • • DGN/TECH: exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info? ceo
      • DGN/TECH: exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info? Tim Schubert
    • DGN/TECH: exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info? Damion Schubert
    • • DGN/TECH: exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info? Mike Rozak
      • DGN/TECH: exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
      • • DGN/TECH: Implementing server side spatial partitiong was:(exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info?) William Leader
        • • DGN/TECH: Implementing server side spatial partitiong was:(exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info?) Alistair Milne
          • • DGN/TECH: Implementing server side spatial partitiongwas:(exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info?) John Buehler
            • • DGN/TECH: Implementing server side spatial partitiong James Turner
            • DGN/TECH: Implementing server side spatial partitiong was:(exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info?) Bruce Mitchener
            • DGN/TECH: Implementing server side spatial partitiong was:(exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info?) HRose
          • DGN/TECH: Implementing server side spatial partitiongwas:(exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info?) John Buehler
        • DGN/TECH: exploiting/hacking in MMOGs - sources of info? Per Vognsen
• PHP Mud Jones, Channing
• • PHP Mud Chris
  • • PHP Mud ceo
    • PHP Mud Michael Tindal
  • Anyone remember this thesis? Scott Jennings
  • • Anyone remember this thesis? Paul Schwanz
• SOC Roll play vs. Role play Matthew Rick
• • SOC Roll play vs. Role play Zach Collins (Siege)
  • SOC Roll play vs. Role play darksuit
  • SOC Roll play vs. Role play richard@kavir.org
  • SOC Roll play vs. Role play Christopher Allen
• Fwd: Distributed State Systems Alex Arnon
• • Fwd: Distributed State Systems Michael Tindal
• Decision making... J C Lawrence
• • Decision making... Mike Rozak
  • • Decision making... Ola Fosheim Grøstad
    • • Decision making... Byron Ellacott
      • • Decision making... Rayzam
        • • Decision making... Matt Mihaly
          • • Decision making... Rayzam
          • Decision making... Mike Rozak
        • Decision making... Kalle
    • Decision making... Jason Messer
    • Decision making... Douglas Goodall
    • • Decision making... Mike Rozak
    • Decision making... Byron Ellacott
  • Decision making... Tess Lowe
  • Decision making... ceo
  • Decision making... Douglas Goodall
  • Decision making... David Kennerly
• Separating newbies and oldbies Ola Fosheim Grøstad
• • Separating newbies and oldbies HRose
  • • Separating newbies and oldbies Ola Fosheim Grøstad
• Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
  I was having a discussion about the problems of most MMORPGs, past
  and announced (until cancelled, that is), and it came to the
  levelling process.
  
  You have some games that attempt to push aside the concept of levels
  and replace it by skills, but you still use XP to raise the skills.
  Even the old Ultima Online can be thought has having XP, it's just
  random whether or not you earn some. All these lead to the same
  syndrome, the "grind", where a player slaughters repeatedly a number
  of mobs in game, until he gains the appropriate level/skill. And the
  grind leads to the "XP highway" concept, where players congregate
  around the areas where the difficulty/experience ratio is the
  lowest.
  
  Well, if you have games with XP but no classes/levels, why not have
  a game with classes/levels and no XP?
  
  Ultimately, levels are used in a game to measure one thing:
  
  - Your readiness to accede to a new segment of content
  
  Which is good. The problem is defining how you are "ready" for that
  new content. That's where opinions diverge. Players want the
  readiness to measure your capacity to confront the challenges of
  said content. Alas, the game measures your readiness chiefly by the
  amount of time spent killing mobs/doing quest, not by any form of
  prowess.
  
  This is due to a simple problem: XP, as a numerical indicator, is a
  form of cash. It's untraceable, and it's exchangeable at will. One
  experience point I got from killing The Grand Boss of the Dungeon is
  completely equal to one experience point I got from killing
  a_weak_mob93. I might have gotten oodles of XP from the Grand Boss,
  but these are equal to the oodles of XP I got from killing hordes of
  those weak mobs. The only difference between those is the time
  spent, which has zero influence on the end result: I have earned X
  amount of XP, I can get to the next level.
  
  That led me to suggest a different model of levelling. It's called
  the "achievement model", because it caters essentially to achievers,
  of course, like most level-based systems.
  
  You can access level N+1 when, and only when, you have at least N
  achievements of level N or above.
  
  Achievements are used to measure your prowess, game knowledge,
  mastery of your class, interaction with other players, whatever.
  Each achievement is individual and unique. A repeat of the exact
  same circumstances means nothing.
  
  For example, killing one mob of level N is a level N achievement
  (however, killing another is not, of course). Visiting a point of
  interest in game that is guarded by hostile level X mobs is an
  achievement of level X. Keeping under control 3 mobs while a 4th is
  fought by your group is a level Z achievement. Defeating the boss of
  Dungeon Y is another achievement. Using "correctly" a skill you can
  gain at level W is itself an achievement of level W. And so on.
  
  The idea is that, if your character is level 20, then by definition,
  you (the player) have a good knowledge of the game world and/or a
  good equipment and/or a knowledge of your class abilities and/or
  experience (in the real world sense) of playing in a group in some
  challenging situations.
  
  How you progress is up to you. At level 4, you can grab 4 moderately
  easy level 4 achievements, which raises you to level 5, where you
  start anew, or you can attempt to get a slightly harder level 7
  achievement (visit an orc-held tower), which not only helps you
  finishing level 4, but 5, 6 and 7 as well.
  
  That kind of achievement-based system behaves very differently from
  an XP-based levelling system. It rewards real world knowledge and
  skill, notably. An experienced player can roll a new character, and
  very quickly "level", by simply running to various places he already
  knows, and reproducing feats he's already seen by other players he
  grouped with.
  
  The largest problem with that system is, of course, coming up with
  achievements. As the level increase, the amount of achievements
  required to level does, which requires the game designers to come up
  with suitable measures of additional prowess in game. This is a lot
  harder than merely doing a copy of existing monsters, raising their
  level by 10, wrapping a new skin over them, and putting them in a
  new area, and calling it a new expansion "with 10 brand new
  levels". If you plan a level 40 cap, you have to come with at least
  780 different achievments, just to have at least enough to finish
  each level in turn, and the amount you need to design grows with the
  square of the level cap.
  
  Some players will also find themselves locked out of higher levels.
  Unless they manage to master enough aspects of the game, it is
  physically impossible for them, no matter how long they can play per
  week, to access the higher end of the game (the elite syndrome: only
  "skilled" players can be of high level), which might discourage
  players.
  
  However, no player can ever accuse your game to encourage grind
  (repeating mindlessly the easiest task you can find for your level)
  or call it a treadmill, if the requirements for real skills keep
  changing as you level.
  
  (oh, and if you want to keep grind, make the game item-oriented,
  and have the players hunt mobs to get equipment/crafting
  materials)
  
  --
  Vincent Archer Email: archer@frmug.org
  
  All men are mortal. Socrates was mortal. Therefore, all men are Socrates.
  (Woody Allen)
• • Removing the almighty experience point... Adam Burr
  • • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
      • • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Sean Middleditch
          • Removing the almighty experience point... Michael Hartman
          • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
        • Removing the almighty experience point... HRose
        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
          • • Removing the almighty experience point... Ola Fosheim Grøstad
            • Removing the almighty experience point... HRose
            • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
              • • Removing the almighty experience point... brian@thyer.net
                • • Removing the almighty experience point... Paul Schwanz
                  • • Removing the almighty experience point... asteroid@rocketmail.com
                    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Byron Ellacott
                      • • Removing the almighty experience point... Kiztent Hatepriest
                        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Johan
                          • • Removing the almighty experience point... Kiztent Hatepriest
                            • Removing the almighty experience point... Amanda Walker
                            • • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                              • • Removing the almighty experience point... Ben Hawes
                                • • Removing the almighty experience point... Johan
                                  • Removing the almighty experience point... Johan
                                  • • Removing the almighty experience point... Ben Hawes
                                  • Removing the almighty experience point... Amanda Walker
                                  • • Removing the almighty experience point... Sean Kelly
                                    • • Removing the almighty experience point... John Buehler
                                    • Removing the almighty experience point... Damion Schubert
                                  • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
                              • Removing the almighty experience point... Damion Schubert
                        • Removing the almighty experience point... Johan
                • Removing the almighty experience point... Travis Casey
                • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
                  • • [SPAM] Removing the almighty experience point... Dana V. Baldwin
                    • • [SPAM] Removing the almighty experience point... J C Lawrence
                      • [SPAM] Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
                      • • [SPAM] Removing the almighty experience point... Dana V. Baldwin
                    • Removing the almighty experience point... ceo
                    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Dana V. Baldwin
                • Removing the almighty experience point... ceo
                • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
                  • • Removing the almighty experience point... Adam
                • Removing the almighty experience point... Bloo
                • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
                  • • Removing the almighty experience point... Sean Kelly
                    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
                      • • Removing the almighty experience point... Sean Kelly
                        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
                        • Removing the almighty experience point... Morgan Dodge
                        • Removing the almighty experience point... Douglas Goodall
                        • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Ben Hawes
                          • Removing the almighty experience point... neild-mud@misago.org
                    • Removing the almighty experience point... Damion Schubert
                • Removing the almighty experience point... John Buehler
                • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
                  • • Removing the almighty experience point... David Wright
                    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
                      • • Removing the almighty experience point... David Wright
                    • Removing the almighty experience point... John Buehler
      • Removing the almighty experience point... Tim Schubert
  • Removing the almighty experience point... Devin Smoth
  • • Removing the almighty experience point... zgj22@drexel.edu
    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
      • • Removing the almighty experience point... Jason Messer
        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Michael Hartman
          • • Dealing with lag (Removing the almighty experience point...) Jason Messer
  • Removing the almighty experience point... cruise
  • • Removing the almighty experience point... Devin Smoth
    • • Removing the almighty experience point... brian@thyer.net
      • • Removing the almighty experience point... Devin Smoth
        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Otis Viles
          • Removing the almighty experience point... brian@thyer.net
          • • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
        • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
        • • Removing the almighty experience point... brian@thyer.net
          • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
  • Removing the almighty experience point... Ola Fosheim Grøstad
  • Removing the almighty experience point... brian@thyer.net
  • • Removing the almighty experience point... neild-mud@misago.org
    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Sean Middleditch
      • • Removing the almighty experience point... neild-mud@misago.org
        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Sean Middleditch
        • Removing the almighty experience point... richard@kavir.org
        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Sean Middleditch
    • Removing the almighty experience point... Corey Cauble
    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
    • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
    • • Removing the almighty experience point... brian@thyer.net
      • • Removing the almighty experience point... Ben Hawes
        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Brian Hook
          • • Removing the almighty experience point... Ben Hawes
            • • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
          • Removing the almighty experience point... brian@thyer.net
          • Removing the almighty experience point... Bloo
          • • Removing the almighty experience point... ceo
            • • Removing the almighty experience point... Ola Fosheim Grøstad
  • Removing the almighty experience point... richard@kavir.org
  • • Removing the almighty experience point... Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
  • Removing the almighty experience point... Corey Crawford
  • • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Freeman, Jeff
      • • Removing the almighty experience point... HRose
        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
  • Removing the almighty experience point... Mike Shaver
  • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
  • Removing the almighty experience point... Mike Rozak
  • • Removing the almighty experience point... Zach Collins (Siege)
    • Removing the almighty experience point... Vincent Archer
    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Mike Rozak
    • Removing the almighty experience point... Will Jennings
    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
      • • Removing the almighty experience point... Travis Casey
        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
        • Removing the almighty experience point... Damion Schubert
    • Removing the almighty experience point... P J
    • • [SPAM] Removing the almighty experience point... Dana V. Baldwin
  • Removing the almighty experience point... P J
  • Removing the almighty experience point... Will Jennings
  • Removing the almighty experience point... Mike Rozak
  • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Amanda Walker
    • Removing the almighty experience point... Miroslav Silovic
    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
      • • Removing the almighty experience point... Miroslav Silovic
        • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
          • • Removing the almighty experience point... Miroslav Silovic
            • • Removing the almighty experience point... Mike Rozak
              • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
                • • Removing the almighty experience point... Miroslav Silovic
                  • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
                    • • Removing the almighty experience point... Miroslav Silovic
              • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
              • • Removing the almighty experience point... Miroslav Silovic
                • • Removing the almighty experience point... Matt Mihaly
• Griefer repellant (Was Decision making...) Mike Rozak
• • Griefer repellant (Was Decision making...) Chek Yang FOO
  • • Griefer repellant (Was Decision making...) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
    • • Griefer repellant (Was Decision making...) Corey Cauble
      • • Griefer repellant (Was Decision making...) Damion Schubert
    • Griefer repellant (Was Decision making...) Mike Rozak
    • • Griefer repellant (Was Decision making...) Chek Yang FOO
• State of Play Conference Invitation Noveck, Beth
• BIZ: Breaking the VW marketing model Mike Rozak
• Has the circle gone rusty? (fwd) J C Lawrence
• • Has the circle gone rusty? (fwd) Chris
  • • Has the circle gone rusty? (fwd) Ren Reynolds
  • Has the circle gone rusty? (fwd) zgj22@drexel.edu
  • • Has the circle gone rusty? (fwd) Chek Yang FOO
    • • Has the circle gone rusty? (fwd) Paul Schwanz
• ClicheQuest J C Lawrence
• Putting the crawl to a halt David Johansson
• • Putting the crawl to a halt Vincent Archer
• Shift in time Brian Lindahl
• • Shift in time Peter A. Harkins
  • Shift in time Mike Rozak
  • • Shift in time Michael Sellers
    • Shift in time Arnau Rosselló Castelló
    • • Shift in time Robert Zubek
      • Shift in time Thomas Clive Richards
      • • Shift in time Mike Rozak
      • Shift in time Robert Zubek
      • Shift in time Amanda Walker
  • Shift in time Paolo Piselli
  • • Shift in time Damion Schubert
    • • Shift in time Paolo Piselli
      • • Shift in time Michael Sellers
  • Shift in time Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
  • • Shift in time Sunny Gulati
  • Shift in time Brian Lindahl
  • • Shift in time Matt Mihaly
    • • Shift in time Brian Lindahl
      • Shift in time Ola Fosheim Grøstad
• TCP/UDP/IP Offload NIC for gamers? Harlan Beverly
• • TCP/UDP/IP Offload NIC for gamers? Ben Greear
  • TCP/UDP/IP Offload NIC for gamers? Jay Moran
  • • TCP/UDP/IP Offload NIC for gamers? Harlan Beverly
    • • TCP/UDP/IP Offload NIC for gamers? Ben Greear
      • • TCP/UDP/IP Offload NIC for gamers? Harlan Beverly
      • TCP/UDP/IP Offload NIC for gamers? Jay Moran
      • • OpenTNL and DirectPlay (hardware acceleration) Harlan Beverly
        • • OpenTNL and DirectPlay (hardware acceleration) Brian Hook
          • OpenTNL and DirectPlay (hardware acceleration) Jeremy Noetzelman
          • • OpenTNL and DirectPlay (hardware acceleration) Harlan Beverly
          • OpenTNL and DirectPlay (hardware acceleration) Brett Bibby
        • BIZ: Gaming Hardware Startup, looking for good Gaming Business Development Person Harlan Beverly
        • • BIZ: Gaming Hardware Startup, looking for good Gaming Business Development Person
          • BIZ: Gaming Hardware Startup, looking for good Gaming Business Development Person Amanda Walker
          • • The Lag monster... Harlan Beverly
            • • The Lag monster... Matthew D. Fuller
              • The Lag monster... Kiztent Hatepriest
              • • The Lag monster... Kiztent Hatepriest
                • • The Lag monster... Sean Kelly
                  • • The Lag monster... Justin Randall
                    • • The Lag monster... Sean Kelly
                • The Lag monster... Harlan Beverly
              • The Lag monster... Amanda Walker
              • The Lag monster... lynx@lynx.purrsia.com
              • The Lag monster... Ola Fosheim Grøstad
      • TCP/UDP/IP Offload NIC for gamers? Byron Ellacott
• DGN/TECH: Implementing server side spatial partitioning William Leader
• • DGN/TECH: Implementing server side spatial partitioning Damion Schubert