How to Change MUing

[surreality]

@Lisse24 I sort of see these things as a MU* version of a fidget spinner, or pocket game of tetris, if nobody else is around. It's a little fun distraction that may get a very minor benefit of some kind, but mostly it's a fun time waster that's in theme and can give people an excuse to bump into each other. Bonus points if it's something people can do together in some way.

Even stuff like little coded tarot cards, chess, playing cards set up for this or that card game, etc. can be randomly entertaining in a non-grindy social way that gives people an excuse to interact on a casual 'well, it's an easy excuse!' level -- heck, have a random NPC object that plays 'the shell game' and costs or wins you a few coins, and emits something that gives people an excuse to come over and rubberneck the game.

It can really just be anything. MOOs were overflowing with this stuff, and some of it was pretty dang nifty.

[Lithium]

Personally, the game I am working on I am trying to automate /as much as fucking possible/ just to lessen staff loads and allow them to focus on what's important. RP.

Will it completely disable +jobs? Nope. But it will lighten the load. I am automating xp spending (except for unlocking out of clan disciplines), XP gain, building (except for actual placement), gear/equipment, status wars, blood pools, etc.

I do hope it will make people be more inclined to realize /they/ control their fun, and they can progress that fun at their leisure without needing to wait around.

[ThatGuyThere]

I have never been a fan of mini-games on a mush, I don't mind if they are there even if they give benefits to other but to me the mini-game defeats the purpose of why I log on.
When i log on it is because I want to RP with other people, even a great mu* based mini-game is meh to me because if I wanted to play a computer based game without other people well I have a console for that, or any of the various games I have on PC. I enjoy both forms but to me they scratch two completely different entertainment itches.

[Three-Eyed Crow]

@ThatGuyThere said in How to Change MUing:

When i log on it is because I want to RP with other people, even a great mu* based mini-game is meh to me because if I wanted to play a computer based game without other people well I have a console for that, or any of the various games I have on PC. I enjoy both forms but to me they scratch two completely different entertainment itches.

I get this. To me, the mindset I go into different types of games with is pretty divorced. I'm just fundamentally looking for different types of experiences when I play 2 hours of Civ V versus when I play a MU scene. Like, I love strategy games, but I loathe MU economies because I just don't particularly think they're made to do that well. I'm more ambivalent about other coded mini-games. I occasionally quite like some and find most pretty benign. I get that they're generally aimed at a different kind of player than me who gets really excited about them, which is cool. I only get actively GRR toward them if they both interfere with RP and I'm forced to deal with them. I'm cool with things that're opt-in and give fairly passive or negligible benefits, but if they take overwhelm RP/character interaction, I go off them real fast.

[Paris]

I think there are a lot more MU*ers than people think. What games are doing to attract and retain them, and bring in new folks, is more important to worry about. Yes, a lot of roleplayers moved on to MMOs, but new folks are still joining the hobby.

F&L has a pretty big proportion of first-time MUSHers, and they bring their friends. We can't be the only one, and WoD is super-saturated as it is.

[surreality]

@Paris Reno1 had a fair bit of new crew, too. It was really refreshing. People seemed to pick it up pretty quickly, too. It helped that we had one new person who did a fantastic job helping them adjust, making resources and similar. While she and I didn't see eye to eye about a great many things, I would never hesitate in saying she did a genuinely phenomenal job with that and was a huge help that way.