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#2482 - 09/30/10 06:14 PM Player base: More or less: a study on mudding.
Rancid Offline
newbie
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Registered: 12/12/07
Posts: 49
I have been muding too long. Darke was my first mud. I started in 1995. Back in the day they were the absolute bomb for online MMO games. To be honest you could probably consider my introduction to muding was bulletin board (BBS)games; which, I started playing in 1981. Since those times I remember new MMO styled games coming out. Doom, Half life, starcarft, Everquest, World of War carft, etc. etc. etc ad naseum.

The options for online gaming are infinite. Honestly, for MOST people; to be encouraged to invest time in mudding, there MUST be more offered from muding than other games. One advantage is that most popular MMOS cost money to play which muds do not. With the exception of Atlantica, which one could argue takes money to play, most of these games cost monthly fees and lots of time.

Any way you sum it up. With a text based game we must offer more from muding than graphical games. More and more people will not take the time to play muds if they do not offer MORE. I am behind any idea that offers encouragement to play; E.G., more minerals, faster and cheaper equipment, pets, minerals, castles and gear. Even faster levels. The only stupid idea I could imagine is allowing people to run around with multiple characters triggered together.

Any additional thoughts?


-Rancid.

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#2484 - 09/30/10 06:51 PM Re: Player base: More or less: a study on mudding. [Re: Rancid]
Jedian Offline
newbie
***

Registered: 12/12/07
Posts: 34
You can offer an incentive referral program that will grant players points that they can use for levels/mcgrail/gear for new players. The point system will grant the player more points as the referred player levels up.

Fix the party system, so it grants an xp bonus based on the amount of players in the party. Also, allow for ritualized casting where the spell effects the entire party.

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#2485 - 09/30/10 07:00 PM Re: Player base: More or less: a study on mudding. [Re: Jedian]
Din Administrator Offline
stranger


Registered: 12/12/07
Posts: 16
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
I think the best thing we can do is just fix everything up with bugs and balance to keep the players we do have interested and playing, make the mud a more welcome place for lower level players, and let word of mouth bring back people who havent played in a long time. Text based muds nowadays are a niche thing with the people who still play them being very devoted but at the same time being something from a bygone era that is not going to bring in new blood from MMOs that havent played them before. I still think this place has the potential to get back to a 20 average again if things are done right, i saw it that high as early as only a few years ago.
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#2506 - 01/25/11 09:23 AM Re: Player base: More or less: a study on mudding. [Re: Rancid]
MacTORG Administrator Offline
Keeper of the Elder Eddas
enthusiast
****

Registered: 10/04/07
Posts: 211
Loc: Oregon
I have always been an immortal character on Darkemud. so my playing exp is very short. We have different players that like to MUD. some like the fast and quick get on top style of mud while others like the details and machanics of the mud. then another type of player is the roleplayer. To have just one mud doing all these things is a hard thing todo but possible with good planning and intergration of the new changes into the mud without problems for current players.

Any changes will cause players to leave and new players to start. everyone like a place that doesn't change. I have seen this many times with the change from pre-cms to cms system. Changes in skills or powers for spells.

right now I have seen changes. before I have seen changes because if this skill is to powerful it is pounded down. it seems like all the changes that have been done on the mud in the past have been to make things equal by cutting back and smoothing things out.

One thing I like about Order. From out of order chaos will always come and from chaos order will rise. it is always going to be changing. I have seen the mud go up and down. tried the war lib and then tried the triciroc land with learning only taught by players. each admin that has took the post here has put a direction they are most happy about. Shadowraith was the first one and he has had great ideas but the players didn't like change. but without change things get stail. Change hurts but with change comes new things to learn and more challenges. I have ideas but at the same time I have to worry about changing to much about the history of the mud. it is a hard thing to move or change the history of something like this place. we each come to the table with dreams and ideas. to mold those ideas into darkemud is a very hard thing and sometimes bug or issues come about.

What shall we do. could we make everything fluid. bring the world to chaos and try different things while it is in flux. then when things feel good we bring order into play until we feel an age of chaos is needed again.

I think I got out of toppic a little maybe.

Each person who plays here has a reason for sticking around. either friends or remembering the old times. not sure. but I have always had the view of a mud is like a book and a 3d game is like a movie of that book.

mudding will always be better than a 3d game for me, but sometimes we need to get a little rest and have some shorterm fun in a 3d world when we want to rest our minds.

when mudding our mind is working a lot more because everything has to be describe in minute details. I have a world I want to put into this mud but I have ideas to build the frame work for that world to be on. but I do not want to take to much out of the imaginaion out of the mud by trying to do to much text graphics.

we need to start some ideas going about how to stream line things but make things and players unique. is the CMS system the best system? I know it is easier for players that like to sit and do things to get exp. the reason we went CMS was for the tinkers and another few guilds to get experance because the combat for them sucked.

have we taken the correct route? is there a better way to travel now? can we do something else to make things different. to have a player die now is very hard on that person and requires time online. during the pre-cms system you would lose exp but still have power to fight back.

when we had the war lib going was that working ok? I know mog caused a lot of issues and I am still trying to figure out what happened. maybe I am getting old and forgetting things.

ok. enough. I think this should of been on the soap box or rant forum!

any ideas?

my spelling sucks and my gramer is not that far behind it. but if you get my idea my spelling and grammer are not required to be perfect.
_________________________
MacTORG
To Live is to Learn, To Die is to Graduate.

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#2508 - 01/26/11 09:03 AM Re: Player base: More or less: a study on mudding. [Re: MacTORG]
carmy Offline
member
****

Registered: 10/14/07
Posts: 164
Loc: South Korea
Basically what I got out of your post is that you want to implement change, but you're generally worried about the reception of any changes that are implemented. It's quite obvious to me that as it is, the game has some rather major flaws, but the players are generally content with the way things are. That's not to say that change isn't welcome. For example, I feel like many of the changes that have been implemented recently are helping to refine existing commands and are really quite useful. I think that change is good, if this change isn't simply for the sake of change. Adding guilds, adding features, adding commands and whatever other additions are things that players like, when they're well thought out, properly tested and useful or neat. It's also important to note that adding new things isn't necessarily what we need. Making what we have work better is always a good start. For example, if you showstats guilds, you'll see which guilds maybe don't work for players. They're guilds people find boring or useless and aren't particularly fun to play. Some guilds like elementalists and chanters, people don't particularly enjoy, but feel obligated to play at some point because what they offer the MUD. You can't do too much without blade spells and chants...

A good direction for the MUD to take is to review guilds and spells and make the less desireable guilds a lot more fun. If you want to make players more unique, maybe start by making guilds more unique. We have like 13-14 guilds, but many of them are identical in many ways. Tinkers and fighters are quite similar. Clerics, Paladins and WPs get many similar spells. AMs and SMs share many spells. I'm not saying that guilds shouldn't share spells, but in the case of Clerics, Paladins and WPs, they share like 10 spells between the 3 guilds, and some spells are just renamed so they don't seem to be the same.

I suppose what I want to say is that having a good concensus from players as to what they'd like to see change, then planning and implementing the changes properly would benefit the MUD. But, change for the sake of change isn't what the MUD needs. Having active admin is very exciting for players, it's nice to know people are around making cool things for us, but if it's gonna turn around and ruin things we have fun doing, it's not worth it.

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#2509 - 01/28/11 08:17 AM Re: Player base: More or less: a study on mudding. [Re: carmy]
MacTORG Administrator Offline
Keeper of the Elder Eddas
enthusiast
****

Registered: 10/04/07
Posts: 211
Loc: Oregon
Thanks for the INPUT! very good. I think you are right about the little changes to make things useful and helpful for players. and to bring the other guilds into balance and make them more unique. plus bringing in areas is a good thing and making sure they have the right amount of balance for all levels. maybe even having areas that newbies can enjoy without having death cast apon them in one heartbeat. every day I get on the mud is a day that gives me more experance. as soon as I get the live mud onto fluffos I will start putting more effort into balance and guilds and fixing general things and giving more options.

I will post more soon.

Again thanks for the reply!
_________________________
MacTORG
To Live is to Learn, To Die is to Graduate.

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