An Open Letter to the JediMud Community

Classic JediMUD Proboards Posts:

Asklepios and Alucard [SWANK]

November, 2004

Having taken a long look at the MUD we have known many years, we cannot help feeling saddened by its current state. It is perhaps the hallmark of old curmudgeons to lecture the young about how much better it all was back in the day, but we think even a newcomer to Jedi would sense the ennui and decay of the once-great but now faded realm, a realm that was called home by countless numbers of procrastinating college students, high school role-playing geeks, and twenty-something deadbeats. It has reached a sorry state, and we cannot help but comment on why. We have a highly creative administrative staff, with arguably the finest coder this mud has ever known, yet the game continues to moulder, morale continues to decline, and the who list continues to shrink. Why?

Having spoken to a large number of the faithful few who remain here about the current state of the game, we have decided it is time to post our reflections in the hopes that they will be taken seriously by those who can act to stem the hemorraghing of our playerbase. The general consensus is this: WE HAVE GONE WRONG. Somewhere along the line, Jedi went wrong with its policies and changes. Having thought about the problem for over a -year-, we have assembled the following points, the products of many hours of conversations with every strata of players past and present. Yes, the post is long, so please take your time reading it. As you consider our analyses, we ask only that you read with a fair and open mind, and before you respond, to think critically and carefully about what we have put forth. Here goes.

The serious drop-off in play by many players. The causes of this are fairly obvious and well-known, and our purpose is to clarify them. One contribution to this problem is the change in regen rates. Theman's post was eloquent and intelligent (as his always are), but most players didn't stop playing because they became CFOs of Fortune 500 companies, they quit because the game became exceedingly tedious to them. Slowing the regen rates did not add to the challenge of the game, it simply made it far more boring, and drove away a lot of people who have no desire to spend a large portion of their online time sleeping in the temple. Many people simply left and found better ways to gratify themselves during their leisure time. However, we honestly believe that the regen rate change would not have been as big a factor in loss of play had the game been as dynamic as it had been in the past. The real problem is the lack of change. Stagnation is by far the single largest contributor to the drop-off in play. There have been no new player classes since rangers were added in 1996, and no new areas since Scipio Dreaming, which, while very nicely written, offers very little in the way of great exp or eq to a player. The last major quest to be run in which serious prizes were offered was Scooby's "Lady Danu" quest in May of last year (with the recent exception of the Halloween Quest). The game needs to add a lot more than just new mob procs every now and then to keep interest alive, and it needs to offer compelling quests rather than trivia or other such silliness. Failure to do so breeds precisely the boredom among the remaining players we see today. And why haven't any major changes occurred?
A draconian policy regarding eq and zones. The mud now seems to be governed with a vice-like policy geared toward preventing any player from attaining more powerful and rare eq. This manifests itself in the rigid manner in which quest prizes are approved and the extremely strict manner in which new zones and eq are vetted. It has never been made clear why zones that don't quite fit a medieval theme are no longer approved or encouraged. This mud contains many such zones, and they add to its unique charm and flavor. Too many proposals have been ignored, denied, or simply not brought proposed because they do not fit this vision of what is appropriate, and the mud has suffered immeasurably as a result. Creativity should be encouraged and celebrated, not denied and marginalized because it doesn't "fit in." And in those zones that are approved, the eq and experience tend to be mediocre. For whatever reason, the fear of "eq creep" has come to dominate how zones are "balanced." Such a fear is unreasonable. If a zone does not contain at least one powerful item or good exp, there is no reason to run it. Some may argue that a zone should be enjoyed or run simply because it's well-written. This argument is juvenile, and indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of what motivates a mudder. Valhalla is a case in point. It's well-written, but it contains little that is useful, and nothing one cannot obtain elsewhere. The exp and gold are mediocre as well, and thus it sits largely ignored. Should it load useful or powerful eq, it would be run far more often. And when a new item is added that is very powerful, it winds up on a mob that is nearly unkillable (think the firedragon). This frustrates the players even more, and causes them to think the admin mean-spirited as well as unreasonable. Better a bland, pointless zone that some newbie might explore than powerful eq hung just far enough out of reach to be maddening. We exaggerate to make the point: adding zones that contain no powerful eq or decent exp, or zones that contain items equally as powerful as other already-existing items, might as well not be added at all. It is not what entices players to remain. Without the motivation of becoming more powerful, a mudder will rest on his or her laurels. This brings us to our third point.
New players have no reason to remain. The newbie kits are pathetic (yes, we know this is being addressed), the instructions for new players are minimal, and there are few older players willing to help a new player out. Many of the more friendly players have left, and those that remain tend to be isolationists. And why shouldn't they be? A player can usually run far better exp solo than with a group. No, the answer to this is not to end soloing by penalizing players or "nerfing" the spells with which they solo (the frequent answer in the past), but to encourage grouping by putting more powerful exp mobs in the game, such as Weeden mobs. Does this sound like an exp tunnel? Yes, it does. Exp tunnels have been looked down upon in the past, and it is thought now that they should be discouraged in zones. Apparently, players should "explore" and find new areas in which to exp. Let us assure you here and now: we have explored. We have sough exp in new places. It tends to be wretched, so we revert to familiar, solo runs, while a newbie sits in the temple vainly waiting for someone to help him. This trend will only continue unless more and better exp mobs are created that require a group to take them down. It is simply not efficient to accept a newbie into a group when so much online time is eaten up by regenning. Players are now forced to maximize their efficiency, and it is inefficient to have a weak hitter in a group. Certainly, the argument can be made that we need to teach new players and help them out so as to build future alliances, but when one has little time on the mud to do anything other than to regen, run some exp, then regen again, why invest the time? It only slows one down, and the game is slow enough as it is.
Eq groups have become a thing of exceeding rariety. The new procs on mobs have increased the challenge of the game, but without the promised corresponding increase in power for mortals, it has made many mobs very difficult to run. Now, many players simply don't bother. One might pull out a mage squad to take down mobs that are still squadable, but for the most part, players simply wait for a crash, or run the powerful eq that can be easily soloed by a ranger (given that rangers are, for all intents and purposes, broken, that doesn't amount to much), or squadded down with mages. All this really does is harm the newer players, since older players don't care to sell the choice eq for gold or trade it for lesser eq, the kind that newer players actually have a shot at acquiring. It used to be that the way a newbie got ahead was by getting levels and getting gold. The more gold they ran, the more they could purchase high-end eq. Eventually, they had enough high-end eq to become noticed by the more powerful players, and they were invited into a circle where they could gain access to even better eq. This was the standard evolution of a mudder, and not necessarily an addicted mudder either. Now, with eq groups all but a thing of the past, most newbies remain at weak levels, and the gulf between power players and weak players grows wider every day. Anyone who has studied any economics whatsoever knows that a healthy middle class drives the economy. It's not difficult to see that part of the reason Jedi's economy is so out of whack is because we lack what amounts to a middle class--a solid group of mid-power mudders dedicated to the concept of social mobility. Without that dynamic possibility, the game cannot but stagnate.

We have composed this post not to annoy but to encourage a spirit of thoughtful, constructive criticism. We hope it has the desired effect. We have spent far too much of our time here over the years, and have grown to love this place far too much, to see it die because people simply stopped caring. We plan to post a follow-up to this in a week or two detailing some helpful ideas that will perhaps return the mud to some of its former glory, and we ask that you do the same. Ultimately, all depends on whether or not the vision currently governing game policy changes. We do not know if this will happen. But we do know that if it does not change, Jedi will continue to die. Help us prevent that from happening.

Sincerely,

Asklepios and Alucard of [SWANK]