<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking --> <!--X-From-R13: "Dncu Ybfgre" <exbfgreNnhfgva.ee.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 15:20:35 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: NDBBLCGJMLFJLCDOFPLMKEBKCIAA.rkoster@austin.rr.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: 0eb201bfa878$885e8160$ba9713ce@verant.com --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:rkoster@austin.rr.com"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg00430.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00432.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00430.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00436.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00431">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00431">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00431">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A>></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: "Raph Koster" <<A HREF="mailto:rkoster#austin,rr.com">rkoster#austin,rr.com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 17:14:47 -0500</LI> <LI><em>Importance</em>: Normal</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu">mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> > -----Original Message----- > From: mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu [<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu]On">mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu]On</A> Behalf Of > Ryan Palacio > Sent: Monday, April 17, 2000 9:24 AM > To: mud-dev#kanga,nu > Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items > > > Raph Koster wrote: > > I have come to believe that twinking is a > > good thing and should be institutionalized. If anyone asks, I'll explain at > > length. ;) > > <--- asks :) This has been a subject of eternal debate in the office and > perhaps a fresh perspective will shed some light on unexplored aspects. > Perhaps this warrants another thread? Just to make sure we're talking about the same thing, a definition: TWINKING: the act of assisting a lower level player to advance in the game at a much faster rate than they would be able to achieve on their own, via the giving of experience (often via XP split systems inherent in grouping systems), items, goods, or money. This is the term as it is used in the context of EverQuest and many muds, but it is not the same as the classic definition used on social muds, wherein a TWINK was merely a jerk or perhaps a GoP player. There are several decision points at which a player makes a decision whether to stick with a mud. The very first is what I'd call the "scratch 'n' sniff." This is where text muds (and there are no hard statistics on this, but watching a mud's connection logs or system channel if they have one will bear this out pretty quickly) lose the majority of newbies who first try their mud. On a free mud it lasts between 3 seconds and five minutes. On a commercial mud where they have bought a box or prepaid a subscription fee, it's likely to be longer merely because they have ivnested some money in it and therefore have more incentive to stay a little longer trying to find the fun. If you do not capture the newbie during that time period, they are gone, and likely will never return. There's only so much you can do to improve the scratch n sniff. It's very audience dependent. AC has a great scratch n sniff for its character creation, for example. Many players will log out of any mud where the scratch n sniff has that whiff of eau d'Midgaard to it... You can work to make the introduction to the environment as nice as possible, and try to reduce this factor. Make your website (likely first avenue of entry these days) nicer, make your title screen and character creation really cool, etc. The second inflection point is after they start playing. Everyone has horror stories about their first play session on a mud. The most frequent words tend to be "confusing" "directionless" "boring" "monotonous" etc. It has been empirically shown that meeting a friend in the first five minutes results in a MUCH higher chance of getting past this inflection point. In fact, I bet you have had this experience with a friend or colleague (I know *I* have): Phred: I tried that game of yours the other night... Me: Oh yeah? How'd you like it? Phred: Well, I couldn't tell what to do. Everybody else was busy running around and nobody would talk to me. So I logged off. Me: Oh. Yeah. You know, it's a lot easier if you have someone to play with. Frieda: I tried that game of yours the other night... Me: Oh yeah? How'd you like it? Frieda: My friend Angus was on and he showed me all the ropes. All I did was kill rats, but I played for eighteen hours and had a blast. Me: Oh. Yeah. You know, it's a lot easier if you have someone to play with. This is all exacerbated by the fact that almost all mud initial play sessions really really suck. Damion Schubert once said to me, "I want a newbie to see the coolest thing the game has to offer in the first session. Imagine if they saw a dragon and helped kill it on the first day." (Very rough paraphrase here). He's dead right. That first play session, before they make that decision to emotionally invest in the game, needs to be awesome. Above all, it cannot be humiliating (cf Jonathan Baron's "Glory and Shame"). Killing rats is humiliating. What more welcoming thing is there than to get outfitted like a hero, handed thousands of gold pieces, and invited along to kill a [insert critter you couldn't possibly tackle solo]? You know that if it so much at looks at you crosseyed, you'll die. You know that your puny sword isn't even denting its hide. But you're with a group of studly heroes, and you're whacking away at it, and you're pretty safe because they are taking care of you (even if you die, they'll pick you right back up again)... that's GLORY, right there. This is important because we know that if you get past that inflection point right there, we have you for the average lifespan of a player. On most muds, that's up to three months. On really good ones, it's six months to a year or more. (Remember, we are speaking of averages here... our anecdotal perspectives on these things are colored by the extremely visible dinos... it's very hard to gather decent data for a text mud where "departure date" is so unclear. But a commercial mud can and should mine all of these numbers.) So twinking, to a point, actually extends player longevity. Now, if your game system is such that someone being twinked basically runs through all of your game data in a far shorter timespan, then leaves, then yes, you have a problem. But that means that the problem lies with your game system, and not with the very natural tendency of humans to assist friends who are less fortunate. It becomes an issue similar to my analysis of selling items: what is being twinked? And the answer is, we want to get newbies past that hump of humiliation, and get them to have friends, within two hours of logging on for the first time (YMMV as far as the time frame, it depends on the game). Institutionalized twinking would be a system whereby elder players are incentivized to help newbies in this manner because they need them for their own purposes. By all accounts, the old Kesmai Multiplayer Battletech did an excellent job at this. The modern example to point at is Turbine's Asheron's Call. In both cases, the institutionalized twinking is done via hierarchical social structures. One can easily see ways to do it differently: to get to high levels of skill, you need x apprentices, etc. Was it Castle Infinity where you had to get another player to change your appearance for you in the newbie areas? Mathematically, I'm pretty sure that the number of people you get past that inflection point leads to more revenue/lifespan than the loss that results from the shortened lifespan of a twinked character--especially if the maxxed out twinked character then chooses to do it over again "on their own" for the challenge of it. -Raph _______________________________________________ MUD-Dev mailing list MUD-Dev#kanga,nu <A HREF="http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev">http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev</A> </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <ul compact><li><strong>Follow-Ups</strong>: <ul> <li><strong><A NAME="00462" HREF="msg00462.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Frank Crowell <maddog@maddog.com></li></ul> <li><strong><A NAME="00448" HREF="msg00448.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Timothy Dang <tdang@U.Arizona.EDU></li></ul> <li><strong><A NAME="00446" HREF="msg00446.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> "Ryan Palacio" <rpalacio@verant.com></li></ul> <li><strong><A NAME="00436" HREF="msg00436.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> <adam@treyarch.com></li></ul> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <UL><LI><STRONG>References</STRONG>: <UL> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="00357" HREF="msg00357.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Ryan Palacio" <rpalacio@verant.com></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00430.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00432.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Alignment</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00430.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00436.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00431"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00431"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><STRONG>RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00336" HREF="msg00336.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>, Raph Koster <a href="mailto:rkoster@austin.rr.com">rkoster@austin.rr.com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 06:41 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00351" HREF="msg00351.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>, Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:the_logos@achaea.com">the_logos@achaea.com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 16:21 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00357" HREF="msg00357.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>, Ryan Palacio <a href="mailto:rpalacio@verant.com">rpalacio@verant.com</a>, Mon 17 Apr 2000, 16:22 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00430" HREF="msg00430.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] banning the sale of items</A></strong>, Raph Koster <a href="mailto:rkoster@austin.rr.com">rkoster@austin.rr.com</a>, Tue 18 Apr 2000, 22:20 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00431" HREF="msg00431.html">[MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</A></strong>, Raph Koster <a href="mailto:rkoster@austin.rr.com">rkoster@austin.rr.com</a>, Tue 18 Apr 2000, 22:20 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00436" HREF="msg00436.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</A></strong>, adam <a href="mailto:adam@treyarch.com">adam@treyarch.com</a>, Tue 18 Apr 2000, 23:12 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00449" HREF="msg00449.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</A></strong>, Geoffrey Z. <a href="mailto:gzatkin@verant.com">gzatkin@verant.com</a>, Wed 19 Apr 2000, 01:56 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00454" HREF="msg00454.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</A></strong>, Raph Koster <a href="mailto:rkoster@austin.rr.com">rkoster@austin.rr.com</a>, Wed 19 Apr 2000, 02:55 GMT </LI> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00446" HREF="msg00446.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking</A></strong>, Ryan Palacio <a href="mailto:rpalacio@verant.com">rpalacio@verant.com</a>, Wed 19 Apr 2000, 01:34 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </ul> </ul> </ul> </ul> </ul> </ul> </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>