May 2007
- [DESIGN] Developing and balancing a roleplaying system Calvin
- [ADMIN] Bounced Posts? Nick Koranda
- [Offtopic] Lend your ears to science! Mike Rozak
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Lachek Butalek
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Jacob Cord
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Steve "Bloo" Daniels
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Damion Schubert
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? John Buehler
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Damion Schubert
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? John Buehler
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Tess Snider
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Raph Koster
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Raph Koster
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? cruise
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? John MacQueen
- "The Next Big Thing" (was [DESIGN} Who to design for?) Mike Sellers
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Michael Chui
- [DESIGN] Who to design for? Michael Hartman
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Damion Schubert
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Tess Snider
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? cruise
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Dana V. Baldwin
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Mike Sellers
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Tess Snider
- [Design] 4Cs (was Who to design for?) Mike Sellers
- [Design] 4Cs (was Who to design for?) Sean Howard
- [Design] 4Cs (was Who to design for?) Mike Sellers
- [Design] 4Cs (was Who to design for?) Sean Howard
- [Design] 4Cs (was Who to design for?) Michael Chui
- [Design] 4Cs (was Who to design for?) Peter Keeler
- [Design] 4Cs (was Who to design for?) Ammon Lauritzen
- [Design] 4Cs (was Who to design for?) Sean Howard
- [Design] 4Cs (was Who to design for?) Lachek Butalek
- [Design] 4Cs (was Who to design for?) Dana V. Baldwin
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? cruise
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Sean Howard
- [DESIGN} Who to design for? Caliban Darklock
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Steve "Bloo" Daniels
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Caliban Darklock
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs cruise
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Steve "Bloo" Daniels
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Tess Snider
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Lachek Butalek
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Michael Chui
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Ian Hess
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Ian Hess
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Tess Snider
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Lachek Butalek
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Michael Hartman
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Kiztent
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Jean, Yannick
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Michael Hartman
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Vincent Archer
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Dave Scheffer
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Tess Snider
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Michael Chui
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs John Buehler
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Morris Cox
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Dana V. Baldwin
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Matt Chatterley
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Dana V. Baldwin
- [Design] [REPOST] Food in MMOs Michael Chui
- [DESIGN] Perma-death cruise
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Dana V. Baldwin
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Steve "Bloo" Daniels
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Nick Koranda
- [DESIGN] Perma-death cruise
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Damion Schubert
- [DESIGN] Perma-death cruise
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Dana V. Baldwin
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Steve "Bloo" Daniels
- [DESIGN] Perma-death cruise
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Steve "Bloo" Daniels
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Tess Snider
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Cory Cohen
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Matt Chatterley
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Craig Huber
- [JOBS] Areae hiring Raph Koster
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Phillip Lenhardt
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Tess Snider
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Tess Snider
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Dave Scheffer
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Dana V. Baldwin
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Dave Scheffer
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Matt Chatterley
- [DESIGN] Perma-death cruise
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Perma-death cruise
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Dana V. Baldwin
- [DESIGN] Perma-death cruise
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Dana V. Baldwin
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Peter Keeler
Dana V. Baldwin wrote:
> We often hear "everyone wants to be the hero but not everyone can be the
> hero". What if everyone doesn't want to be the hero. What if some of
> them are content to hang out in toewn and not fight monsters or be
> adventurers at all. What if some of them like to go on nice safe patrols
> with decent rewards and low risk. What if those that want to be the hero
> get a shot at actually BEING the hero, as long as they can stay alive.
That sounds great and I totally agree with you, except for one thing
that Dave Scheffer said awhile back. I liked it so much I wrote it on a
sticky note and stuck it to my monitor:
"The problem is the game world not recognizing aberrant behavior and
providing a compensatory game mechanic."
Sure, I'd love to play a pure trader or crafter. If I could set up shop
in a town and have an engaging crafting game to play, I'd do it. If I
could send other folks to go sell my wares in some distant town because
the prices are better, I'd do that too. If I could hire a decent escort
whenever I had to go out of my town, I'd do it.
The problem is that one guy who decides to level his fighter up, then go
through town perm-killing all the guys like me. Old MUDs used to make
the shopkeepers the buffest mobs in the game for precisely that reason.
Later games made them non-attackable. Making them PCs introduces a
dilemma because you have to protect the crafter from griefers, but still
make the game dangerous.
So do you encourage crafters to arm themselves? Can they hope to defend
themselves from someone who has built a character specifically to murder
them (and hasn't bothered with all those useless crafting skills)? Do
you have the police magically teleport in and stop the attack? The
griefers will certainly figure out a way to get a one shot kill in
before they have a chance to appear. Do you make shopkeeping PCs
invulnerable to attack? Then what's to stop them from provoking an
attack and retreating into their shops?
At the root of this problem is that if you kill an NPC in a
"meaningless" or "unfair" way, the computer doesn't care. It makes a new
NPC. If a player gets killed in such a way, they may not play your game
any more. Making death not permanent is an effective way to cushion
against meaningless deaths by saying that not -everything- is at stake,
as it is in real life.
Pete - [DESIGN] Perma-death Dana V. Baldwin
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Peter Keeler
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Peter Keeler
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Michael Chui
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Peter Keeler
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Soy weiser
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Ammon Lauritzen
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Jeffrey Kesselman
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Ammon Lauritzen
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Dana V. Baldwin
- [DESIGN] Perma-death John Buehler
- [DESIGN] Perma-death Hans Häggström
- [DESIGN] Perma-death cruise
- [NEWS] Sigil / Vanguard fallout ... the ex-employee interview Adam Martin
- [NEWS] Sigil / Vanguard fallout ... the ex-employeeinterview Morgan Ramsay
- [NEWS] Sigil / Vanguard fallout ... the ex-employee interview Sean Howard
- [NEWS] Sigil / Vanguard fallout ... the ex-employee interview Adam Martin
- [NEWS] Sigil / Vanguard fallout ... the ex-employee interview Caliban Darklock
- [NEWS] Sigil / Vanguard fallout ... the ex-employeeinterview Mike Rozak
- Fwd: [NEWS] Sigil / Vanguard fallout ... the ex-employeeinterview Adam Martin
- [DESIGN] Mechanical support for socializer playstyles Ian Hess
- [TECH] Creating games with Worldforge Roger D Vargas
- [TECH] Creating games with Worldforge Alistair Riddoch
- [TECH] Creating games with Worldforge Roger D Vargas
- [TECH] Creating games with Worldforge Tess Snider
- [TECH] Creating games with Worldforge Roger D Vargas
- [TECH] Creating games with Worldforge Lachek Butalek
- [TECH] Creating games with Worldforge Tess Snider
- [TECH] Creating games with Worldforge Roger D Vargas
- [TECH] Creating games with Worldforge Tess Snider
- The Merits of Text Chat (Was: Importance of emoting) Michael Hartman
- The Merits of Text Chat (Was: Importance of emoting) Matt Chatterley
- [Design] Alternatives To Advancement Systems (was Food in MMOs) Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Essence of a MMO (was 4Cs) Dana V. Baldwin
- [DESIGN] Essence of a MMO (was 4Cs) Caliban Darklock
- [DESIGN] Essence of a MMO (was 4Cs) Sean Howard
- [DESIGN] Essence of a MMO (was 4Cs) Dana V. Baldwin
- [TECH] Server Side Scripting Roger D Vargas
- [TECH] Server Side Scripting Caliban Darklock
- [TECH] Server Side Scripting Richard Tew
- [TECH] Server Side Scripting Ammon Lauritzen
- [TECH] Server Side Scripting Jeffrey Kesselman