Muckbeast

One of my new mantras as a game developer is the belief that players are content. Developers who ignore this do so not only at their own peril, but to the disappointment of their own customers. What do I mean by saying players are content? I mean they provide at least as much (and probably more) entertainment for your customers than any actual content you create as a developer. In a fashion, the game you design attracts a certain type of player, and those players take it from there to keep each other amused and entertained.

This is not an absolute (as nothing really is when it comes to anything as complex as designing games). There are many aspects of a fun, well designed MUD that can be fully enjoyed solo. But a good game developer will always be aware of the fact that maintaining an active player base and valuing each and every player are vital priorities. Looking at players simple as customers is a mistake.

So, how does one acknowledge, support, and take advantage of the fact that players are content? Here are a few ways:

1) Dump the subscription model. (Yes, here I go again.) If your business model causes people to quit playing and no longer be around, you have made a huge mistake. Developers are extremely hesitant to remove content from their games. Crappy instances, poor zones, badly realized features, and weak or broken classes rarely get removed from a game. They just lie around and languish with little or no developer attention. Players generally hate this, because they get sucked into partaking in this content (or making a character of the broken class) and eventually realize it isn’t up to snuff. But developers are so loathe to remove content, they leave it in place anyway. But when it comes to players, who are an extremely valuable and entertaining type of content, developers act very differently. If you can’t pay up, you’re gone. They ignore the fact that when one customer chooses not to maintain their subscription, their quitting the game could have a cascade effect. Their best friend or spouse is likely to quit as well. And then friends of those people may quit. Or after a few such people quit, an entire guild might quit. And so on and so on.  Just  because someone doesn’t feel the game is worth $15 a month right then (and it may not even have anything to do with their satisfaction with the game – it could be real life commitments, travel, school, work, all sorts of things) a lot of content may potentially disappear from the game – as well as a lot of additional subscriptions and therefore income.

It is an incredibly common occurrence on an MMO that people start quitting not because the game is not fun any more, but because all their friends are gone. What a shame and what a failure that is. Without the subscription, those people could at least pop in now and then long enough for the person still enjoying the game to feel like their friends are still a part of the community.

2) Run events. Events bring people together and give players an opportunity to show off for other players. Think of some fun, interesting events and let the creativity and sense of humor of your players shine. Some of the events on Threshold are pretty simple and yet end up being tons of fun due to the creativity, humor, and general wackiness of certain players. It amazes me that most MMOs nowadays barely have any staff run events at all.

3) Give players ways to show off their own creativity and talent. I’m back to my player housing rant. Decorating and designing a house, guild hall, temple, etc. is a great way for players to show off their design skills. Players will pour enormous amounts of time into decorating their homes, and then other players will enjoy the content as well when they come and visit. Homeowners will take great pride in their accomplishments, and other players will enjoy getting ideas from talented designers to use on their own homes.

And player housing is just the beginning. Let players dye their clothing and armor. Let players custom design certain cosmetic articles of clothing. Give players a way to create purely cosmetic outfits. It boggles me to no end that Threshold , Everquest, DAoC, and Ultima Online all had clothing/armor dye, and yet somehow this technology eludes the Blizzard developers.

4) Let players affect the world. I love this one because it is something pretty much unique to the text MUD world. On graphical MMOs, players have almost no ability to affect anything in the world. They can’t change the landscape. They can’t change the politics. They can’t change the factions. The state of the world is set in stone and they are just passing through tinkering with the respawns. But on text MUDs, players can dramatically affect the game world. They can repel major invasions that would have otherwise devastated the landscape. They can overthrow political leaders of cities or kingdoms and take over themselves. They can make THEIR religion dominant over others. They can control the economy through role play and politics rather than just buying all of an item and relisting it for a higher price. When players feel like they can affect the world around them, they have a much deeper emotional connection to the world. They will work together to make the world feel a lot more alive.

So what do you all think? As players, do you feel like you are content? How important is this type of content to you and your overall enjoyment of a game?