How to launch a MU*
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For those of you that have successfully launched a game (or feel you've been close enough to launch to have gotten good instincts on the topic):
What are the essential pieces that must be in place to launch successfully? Is there a critical mass of initial staffers? Critical mass of initial players? An existing metaplot ready for day 1? Some game systems which aren't just nice to have, they're absolutely essential? Clear guidance on theme? Clear standards/policies of MU* conduct?
Assume that the bare essentials are already in place -- full-time code support + automated chargen + sheet + roll code.
Would love some opinions on this.
Thanks!
-reason
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@reason I would never open a MUSH that is not substantially complete. By susbtantially complete, I mean:
- All necessary theme files are in place so that people coming to your MUSH understand the game and what it is about. This includes any files about different races, places, any magic systems, setting, etc.
- All policy files are in place, including your expectations for conduct of players and how to report other players
- The grid is complete and descriptions are done. This doesn't mean that the grid can't be expanded upon, but you should have the basic grid done with a dozen or more places for RP depending on your theme.
That doesn't mean that these things all have to be SET IN STONE and nothing can be changed/updated/etc. All games will need 'polishing' as you kick the tires and see what shakes loose. But putting up a game that doesn't look finished, or where you start crowd-sourcing for a large majority of things (room descs, abilities, monsters-of-the-week,etc.) just spells trouble and I have not seen a game gone up that's done that and lasted very long.
As far as critical mass of initial staffers - ehhh, that's gonna depend on so many variables that it's not worth it. @krmbm and I ran Gray Harbor on just the two of us, but we did eventually ask for help with applications, building and most importantly storytelling as the game got larger. It depends on your own personal ability to run the game. How much time can you invest, etc?
Critical mass of initial players, again that really depends and I wouldn't focus on that. You have to ask yourself what you consider successful as a game runner - that could be a population of 5 or 500, and it's not something you can necessarily control either.
Existing metaplot - ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Metaplot is not something I'm necessarily strong with and it wasn't important to me. It's way more important that people have something to RP about and something to base their own stories off of. That should be in place as of Day 1.
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@bear_necessities said in How to launch a MU*:
- The grid is complete and descriptions are done. This doesn't mean that the grid can't be expanded upon, but you should have the basic grid done with a dozen or more places for RP depending on your theme.
looks at the game he's building
looks back here
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I'll just say... I'm not joining anymore games that open with HELP US FINISH THE WIKI/GRID/WHATEVER!! WILL GIVE YOU XP!!!
So that's my metric for opening a game or joining new ones.
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@testament The grid for me is the hardest part. But I would just start with basics and map them out? Like, if you're doing modern day theme, people will want a bar, a coffee shop, etc. Think of places people are going to RP in a majority of the time and connect them with roads or whatever.
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@bear_necessities said in How to launch a MU*:
@reason I would never open a MUSH that is not substantially complete. By susbtantially complete, I mean:
<...SNIP...>
Really appreciate that thoughtful reply, @bear_necessities. What's your thoughts on the value of opening in an Alpha/Beta context to learning some early lessons/fail-fast prior to a wider opening?
-reason
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@reason So me and @krmbm sandboxed for about a year to "test" our concepts and see if they could be playable which I think is a good idea? I mean obviously you don't have to sandbox with people for an entire year to see if it works, but giving the game a test run with a couple of friends isn't entirely unreasonable.
TBH I don't think opening in Beta really means anything to anybody anymore. A game in Beta just tells me that the systems might get tweaked as the game goes on, but I would not expect a huge overhaul of theme in a game that's been opened to the public, whether that's a game in Alpha or Beta or whatever comes after those two things lol
I wouldn't be afraid of failure though. Like, if you have a theme/setting that you're excited about and have some stories to tell ... people'll show up. They might not stick around forever, but that doesn't make your game any less successful.
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@bear_necessities I think it's worth noting, too, that 'beta' and 'alpha' mean different things to different people. It's probably best that if you're opening a game in alpha or beta, you explain to players what that means.
Like, if I opened a game in beta, I'd be expecting to do hard system testing and revision, and early beta would probably involve XP wipes and rebuilds as systems were broken, re-developed, and redeployed, so I'd want players to know that before they got invested.
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@pyrephox I definitely agree with that, explaining to people your own expectations / meanings is really important
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I think that the list @bear_necessities put together is a good one. I agree that the most important things are policy, theme files, and some descriptions (I like the idea of at least a dozen RP centers).
Other things I would suggest having ready are:
- A Chargen Guide to walk players through creating characters.
- A few scenes/events ready to go to set the status quo in the game (give players a couple of weeks of status quo to get onto the game, through chargen, and settled).
- A plan for the first way to break the status quo (monster of the month, metaplot, whatever it is).
You'll need enough Staff to handle apps, answer questions, and provide the status quo and the break in the status quo, but what number that needs to be depends on the Staff involved.
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@pyrephox @bear_necessities @Seraphim73 Thanks for those thoughts! What's the expectation for web-based and/or asynchronous gameplay and your opinion on the degree to which that is table-stakes in the present day and age of the MUSH?
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Your game should, IMO, be largely done before launch. This means that, as @bear_necessities says, your theme files are in place and fleshed out, your policies are clear, your chargen guides are ready, your grid is built and desced, and you know what sort of RP you expect players to engage in on day one.
It also means that if you have extra systems - like, say, magic - that said system is LARGELY functional. I opened a game in Beta (technically it still is), and we did sometimes make some changes to the system over time, but the core of it had already been tested, the code worked (...mostly), and the policies surrounding it were things I was fairly certain about.
Personally I would not do that early 'is this even feasible, does combat break all the time' testing on an open game. That's the sort of thing I do with a small, trusted group of friends. Systems that don't matter to gameplay are fine to add later, but if it's important to your theme, I think you should have it at open.
All of these things will change - I update documentation constantly, I adjust policies as things come up, we expand the grid as we see what's missing. The magic system has grown as players have chased different things ICly. Growth is good. That's different from opening an unfinished game, though.
Is there a critical mass of initial staffers? - Yes, but the number depends on your game. Some can run with one person. Some really need a team. You should have an idea of what work you have to do and how much time it will take, and have a team to fit that. If you DON'T have an idea of that work, then you need to figure it out. Understanding the work you're getting yourself into is an important part of running a game.
Critical mass of initial players? - I personally would never work on a game I didn't know at least 6-10 people wanted to play - but I'm sure people HAVE and have gotten traction. Most games that look to be crafted with care and thought these days seem to get a pretty good crowd, so if you feel confident in your ability to design an interesting game to completion, I'd just go for it. But a few early sign ups can def ease the nerves.
An existing metaplot ready for day 1? Metaplot, no. An idea of what characters will be doing and fast ways for them to get hooked into it? Yes. Sometimes this IS metaplot, sometimes it's just flash in the pan stuff, sometimes it's parties. What you don't want is characters wandering the grid going 'what am I supposed to do?' for a week.
I think the process of building a game is in many ways preparation for running one. If you don't have the patience to get all your ducks in a row before opening, I suspect you'll struggle to have the patience to actually do all the minutiae that comes with game running. This doesn't have to be an arduous process - I've helped run games we took from idea to open in 6 weeks. I've also worked on games for 2 years before open. Your ambition, the game's complexity, your available time, your enthusiasm - these all vary. Understanding how they fit together is a really important part of the process, I think.
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@tat said in How to launch a MU*:
I think the process of building a game is in many ways preparation for running one. If you don't have the patience to get all your ducks in a row before opening, I suspect you'll struggle to have the patience to actually do all the minutiae that comes with game running.
This just needs to be reiterated. Running a game is a labor of love. Trying to build it and run it at the same time seems like a quick trip to Burnout Town. The amount of effort that you need to pour into a game before opening, though, really depends on the scope of your project.
Are you running a soap opera sandbox? Because you can probably spin that up, throw a coffee shop on the grid, put up some policies to keep people from being dicks, and call it a day.
Are you running a game with homebrew powers? Because then you're gonna need to invest the time to explain that system to people and give them the tools to use your abilities.
Are you using existing IP? Because then you need to explain to people what level of canon they need to know to play your game, and provide them the necessary resources.
The generic "grid, theme, policy" are the broad-strokes. The details of the game you're making are going to inform what you need to have in place before you cut the ribbon.
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I'll echo what others have said and suggest that the game be mostly complete before opening. Most players, in my experience, want to join a game and hit the ground running. They don't generally want that ground to be constantly shifting under their feet. You can add things on later, of course, but make sure that the initial starting foundation is solid. That means:
- Stuff to get them going in the setting (theme files, chargen, app staff)
- Stuff for them to do once they get IC (plot hooks, grid rooms, plot staff)
How much staff you need depends on the type of game you run. I run games myself because I design the games to be runnable by myself. A game with lots of different factions to manage, diverse plots going on simultaneously, staff-heavy app processes, etc. is going to have very different needs.
@reason said in How to launch a MU*:
@pyrephox @bear_necessities @Seraphim73 Thanks for those thoughts! What's the expectation for web-based and/or asynchronous gameplay and your opinion on the degree to which that is table-stakes in the present day and age of the MUSH?
There are some folks for whom it's critical, but there are still plenty of games still running on the traditional MUSH platforms or Evennia that don't have built-in support for both web and async gameplay (or either). I wouldn't make a technology choice based on that factor alone; choose the game platform that best fits your needs on the whole.
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@faraday said in How to launch a MU*:
traditional MUSH platforms or Evennia that don't have built-in support for both web and async gameplay (or either)
There is/has been a push in the traditional platforms for web-socket functionality. You can but a client on a browser, with JS you can add some buttons for like talking on pub or checking the hangouts. You can also add in a logger of your liking, which can be used asynchronously by all players.
@carma said in How to launch a MU*:
What can I do when nobody is around for public RP? Give me bite-size tasks I can do during downtime.
For me this isn't a seller. Most MU's I've been on have not had NPCs or tasks or mini-games to do when no one else was around; unless one counts the rise of wiki's in the past 15+ years and prettying up the wiki as a minigame. I see this closer to MUD-type play and they do it better. Whether its farming, fishing, trading, econ, quests, mobs, interacting with old-school style 'AI' npcs, whatever. If I want these I'll go there or just get the app that fits my fun for minigame.
If no other players are around I'm probably moving on.
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@lotherio said in How to launch a MU*:
@carma said in How to launch a MU*:
What can I do when nobody is around for public RP? Give me bite-size tasks I can do during downtime.For me this isn't a seller. Most MU's I've been on have not had NPCs or tasks or mini-games to do when no one else was around; unless one counts the rise of wiki's in the past 15+ years and prettying up the wiki as a minigame. I see this closer to MUD-type play and they do it better. Whether its farming, fishing, trading, econ, quests, mobs, interacting with old-school style 'AI' npcs, whatever. If I want these I'll go there or just get the app that fits my fun for minigame.
For a lot of people this isn't something you can just dismiss out of hand though; once you've been on a game with some sort of task system, it's hard not to see the benefit of them. Having ways to engage players with their characters/orgs/the game at large that doesn't require like, a solid 4-hour sit down commitment for a roleplaying scene is genuinely interesting and seems to build a lot more investment.
It doesn't necessarily need to be some elaborately coded thing, either. I never got a chance to play it but IIRC Requiem for Kingsmouth got a loooooot of mileage out of its house-ruled territories system. It's definitely something new games should at least consider.
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@wizz Just on the flipside of this: Some people (hi!) actively avoid the "sim" games.
Which brings us back to: build what you would enjoy. Not what you think other MUSHers will. We can't agree on a goddamn thing around here.
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@krmbm said in How to launch a MU*:
@wizz Just on the flipside of this: Some people (hi!) actively avoid the "sim" games.
Which brings us back to: build what you would enjoy. Not what you think other MUSHers will. We can't agree on a goddamn thing around here.
I think that's generally sound advice!
I also fully admit that I haven't played on a MUSH for 10+ years, so my instincts on how the genre has evolved aren't as finely tuned as they once were, and building on top of the innovations of the present rather than strictly recalling my preferences of the past is something I'd like to be sensitive to.
For example, I'm still trying to fully grok SceneSys and it's implications -- that's new and novel (at least by my standards).