| Board | Ideas.old [context] |
|---|---|
| Sender | Aemon |
| Date | Tue Nov 26 20:26:01 2019 |
| To | all |
| Subject | The State of Aaarchon: Oblivion |
| I wrote this quickly and there are probably lots of errors, so forgive me. This mud is in a very precarious place. I hate alliteration but it's true. Every one of the areas in the game was built at a time when the player base was much larger than it currently is. The equipment in the game, the difficulty of acquiring equipment, are all based on a value system which is no longer current. Aarchon simply don't have the numbers it used to justify, in my opinion, the difficultly in acquiring a lot of these equipment pieces. There needs to be a discussion about changing some of these equipment runs to make them possible for a single player to do it, because that's how the game is played now. That fact doesn't seem likely to change in the near future, or any future for that matter. MUDs, and especially Aarchon, aren't popular anymore. Furthermore, players with specific knowledge of these runs aren't around anymore. The knowledge on how to acquire a lot of equipment in the game isn't there. You can make a lot of arguments about the value of equipment justifying the difficulty and downright obscurity in some of these equipment runs. However, these creators wanted their equipment worn. The equipment was made to be worn. It does no good to the game sitting on an NPC at the end of some ridiculously specific procedure. We need to either have an open database of information on these runs or we these runs need to be changed outright to make soloing them a viable option. Because, lets be honest, that's how the game is played anymore. There needs to be a serious discussion around the issues of playability and approachableness. Unfortunately, Aarchon falls seriously short in these two metrics, in my opinion. Back when a lot of these areas were created, we had a vibrant playerbase you could share knowledge with and inquire upon. Now? If Sirlance or Lebhaft aren't logged on, you're not going to find the answer. Umbra had a tremendous wealth of knowledge and now he and that wealth of knowledge are inactive. It's not going to improve anytime soon, either, as more players with knowledge passed down from "generation" to "generation" fade into the shadows and disappear from the mud entirely. I don't know the best solution to this problem but I hope this can create a discussion regarding what I perceive to be a very big threat to the health of this game. -Aemon |
