Pondering MUD Development (part 2)

So for those of you who were following, I laid out a number of things that I believe players want in any sort of RPG game setting.  Here's a batch of things they typically don't want (some of these things have been addressed or eliminated in Meat MUD Classic already):

1) Attempts by the developers to simulate "reality" within the gameplay.

Here's an example of that one - I once helped to develop for a MUD that wanted to completely redo the method of getting around the MUD and make it as realistic as possible.  To accomplish this they removed the standard movement commands (north, east, south and west) and created a compass object that you had to obtain after joining the game.  Only by looking at the compass would you know if you were facing north, east, south or west.  If you needed to head west, and you were facing north, you had to turn to your left and then move by typing forward.  To add insult to injury, the developers implemented this change directly to the MUD without bothering with testing it thoroughly on another port first.

Let's just say it was a disaster.  Nobody could figure out how to find anything anymore, nor did anyone want to adjust to a method of getting around that required three additional steps and easily resulted in getting lost.  Sadly, this method of movement was implemented by a number of graphic RPGs in the 80s - although the only ones that pops to mind right now is Curse of the Azure Bonds and Ultimate IV: Quest of the Avatar, and bear in mind these RPGs only used that method of getting around while the characters were in dungeons.  That part of those games drove me nuts, and seeing it implemented in a text based game was frightening.  The lesson I took away from this is reinventing the wheel is typically not necessary, and adding complexity to what used to be a simple task is usually a bad idea.

2) RPG developers who "balance" the game after it has been played by multiple people.

Unfortunately it is the nature of MUDs to need to be adjusted periodically to try to maintain balance between the various classes and races played in the game.  Typically this balancing comes in the form of restrictions, removals or diminishing of skills and spells, and various other limitations that were not in place before.  Nothing irritates players more than for the game to suddenly get more difficult than it was before in the name of "balance" and "fair game play".

3) Death

The dealbreaker for me when I finally got around to trying out Ultima Online was when I attacked a rabbit and got killed.  Nobody should ever die while attempting to kill a snail, a rabbit, a mouse, or some other small and generally helpless critter in any RPG type game, ever.  It's downright embarassing.  But there's more to the puzzle.

Generally speaking players don't want to die over and over again while they are attempting to accomplish some goal.  In a MUD that rewards players with exceptional experience for defeating a monster that is more powerful, it should be potentially possible for that player to accomplish this goal, whether through the use of potions, spells, teamwork or some other method.  While death is inevitable in these sort of games, usually it is punished in some way.  Currently Meat MUD Classic employs an experience loss and maze punishment with no loss of equipment.  The original Meat MUD employed a loss of experience combined with all equipment being left on the corpse, which would then have to be retrieved by the player or by another player for the one who died (and in the meantime many prayers would be offered that the MUD would not crash in the process).

I would like to see death happen less frequently in this type of game.  At the same time, I believe some method of punishment is necessary.  There are new RPG type games that approach this system in a different manner (such as the new Fable II, which does not employ death at all, but does penalize the character for taking a massive beating over and over again with disfigurement).  I'm curious about other people's ideas in this area in particular.

4) Loss of equipment (especially good, rare or quest reward equipment)

A large number of MUDs and RPGs make it possible to permanently lose equipment through damage in battle, by being disarmed and the weapon picked up by a scavenging creature, by death traps, and other methods that I can't think of off the top of my head.  There is no longer any practical reason for this that I can think of other than to make players angry.  It seems that there are a number of MUDs out there that enjoy doing just that for some reason that I cannot fathom.  In my opinion the only time a player should lose equipment should be either due to death (if that is the employed death punishment for that particular RPG) or because the player has decided to auction, donate, sacrifice or sell the item in question.

Again, I will make this a stopping point for now, although I do intend to continue with the Pondering MUD Development series.  Comments are welcome, feedback is requested.