2 playing styles; action versus interaction, and world orientated versus.
Mud's labelled as either"social" or "Gamelike"
"Most Mud's trace their lineage directly back to Trubshaw's 1978 game (Bartle 1990; Burka, 1995) and, perhaps because of this heritage, the vast majority are regarded as "games" by their "players""
"Mud's can be of considerable value in non-game (i.e. serious) applications"
"are Mud's:
Games like chess, tennis?
Pastimes like reading, gardening or cooking?
Sports?
Entertainment?
Or a combination of all four?"
Fours things players of Mud's enjoy:
"1) achievement within the game context
2) exploration of the game
3) socialising with others
4) Imposition upon others. Players use the tools provided by the game distress to (or to help) other players"
Labels of four player types:
Achievers, explorers, socialisers and killers
"Many (if not most) players have a primal style" but drift between all four styles, to chance their style or to increase their primary styles level.
If too many of one type dominate the game then others will leave making a domino effect of other player types leaving the game.
It is difficult to get a sort of statues quo where all player types can get along and play together.
Interest graph (lines represent source of players interest in a Mud)
"The game world is just a setting like the characters that make it more compelling"
If Muds are made biased to one player types through the mechanics then the game isn't a Mud any more as it needs a piece of each player type to be a Mud.
Players - "when all sense of elsewhere presence is lost you no longer have a Mud"
World - "if there's no one to tell, or no way to tell them, you don't have a Mud"
Interacting - "If players can't play, it's not a Mud"
Acting - "Without depth, you have no Mud"
Programming = Nature of Mud
Admin = Nature of a Mud
"Ways to emphasize players over world:
add more communication facilities
add more player-on-player commands
make communication facilities easy and intuitive
decrease size of the world
increase connectivity between rooms
maximise the numbers of simultaneous players
restrict building privileges to a select few"
cut down on the number of mobiles
Ways to emphasize world over players:
have only basic communication facilities
have few ways that players can do things to others
make building facilities easy and intuitive
maximise the size of the world
use only "rationale" room connections in most cases
grant building privileges to many
have lots of mobiles
Ways to emphasize interacting over acting:
make help facilities produce vague information
produce cryptic hints when players appear stuck
maximise the effects of commands (i.e. add depth)
lower the rewards for achievements
have only a shallow level/class system
produce amusing responses to amusing commands
edit all non descriptions for consistent atmosphere
limit the number of commands available in any one area
have lots of small puzzles that can be easily solved
allow builders add completely new commands
Ways to emphasize acting over interacting:
provide a game manual
include auto map facilities
include auto log facilities
raise the awards for achievement
have an extensive level/class system
make commands to be applicable where ever they might reasonably have meaning
have large puzzles that take over an hour to complete
have many commands relating to fights
only allow building by top quality builders"
"These strategies can be used to encourage or discourage different styles of play"
These should be used to get new players only to enhance or not the current players
"Denial of history is not, in general, a wise thing to do"
"These major factors distinguish a Mud from and adventure style computer game:
a Mud is not goal orientated
a Mud is not extensible from within
a Mud generally has more than one user connected at a time"
This rules out Amy Bruckman's theory that Mud's are a type of adventure game.
"Dynamics:
To increase number of achievers:
reduce number of killers, but not too much
if killer numbers are high, increase numbers of explorers.
To decrease number of achievers:
increase number of killers
if killer numbers are low, reduce number of explorers
To increase number of explorers:
increase number of explorers (as no one really attacks them)
To decrease numbers of explorers:
massively increase the number of killers
To increase number of socialisers:
slightly decrease number of killers
To decrease number of socialisers:
slightly increase number of killers
massively increase number of achievers
massively decrease number of explorers
decrease number of socialisers
To increase number of killers:
increase number of achievers
massively decrease number of explorers
increase number of socialisers
To decrease number of killers:
decrease number of achievers
massively increase number of explorers
decrease number of socialisers"
The following diagram shows the flow of player influence
+ <------------ +
- <------------ -
killers + ------------> - achievers
- + + - - ------------> +
^ ^ | | - + ++
++ --
| | | | ^ ^
\ / /
| | | | | \
\ / /
| | | | \ \
X /
| | | | \ \/
X
| | | | \ / \/ \
| | | | / \ / \ \
| | | | / / \
\ \
| | | | / /
\ \ \
| | | | | /
\ \ |
| | v v v v \
| v
- + --++ - - ++ -- -
socialisers
explorers
+ - - + + +
^ ^ | | ^ |
| | | | | |
\ \___/ / \___/
\___/
"Game-like" Muds are the ones of which the killer - achiever equilibrium has been reached
"social" Muds are the ones in which the pure social-stability point has been reached"
"all-round" Muds, which exhibits both social and game - like traits.
Overbalancing a Mud:
"Tilting a Mud towards achievers would make it obsessed with game play"
"Tilting towards explorers would add depth and interest, but remove much of the activity"
"Tilting towards socialisers removes all game play and centres on communication"
"Tilting towards killers is more difficult because this type of player is parasitic on the other three types" Make it a shoot-em-up style game.
If something is added to tilt a Mud one way a counter balance must be added to equal out the Mud's player types.
"So long as a system is a (text based) multi-user-virtual world, that's enough." To be a Mud.
So "are Mud's:
Games like chess, tennis? YesPastimes like reading, gardening or cooking? Yes
Sports? Yes
Entertainment? Yes
Or a combination of all four? Yes"
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