@ Lyrositor, "Another thing: some people don't like the DRC. This opens up a whole other level." Whether it is currency or some type of experience points… I think the original purpose of the DRC was to put some friction and tension in the game. It definitely created some factions. So, I would not see that as much of a change in the game. Both currency and points have been used to improve player retention.
@ Stucuk, picking stuff up… I’ve been told the physics is client side. We had some movable stuff at one time and for performance reasons it was removed. From playing with Blender/PyPRP building there are some values that must be added to an object to allow the avatar to move it. Anything in Uru would need those values added. It has been sometime since I looked at PRP files in Blender. As I recall very little of Uru is physical. Simplified geometry was added for those things that need to be physical. I think it is unlikely we will ever see changes for moving things happen in existing Cyan ages. It might be doable in fan ages without much problem.
I have concerns about performance. I’ve found Uru to be laggy as the number of concurrent players increases. Lag certainly doesn’t help player retention. As things move that is information that has to arrive at the server and be transmitted to all players. So, it would increase bandwidth demand. I have no information on whether the bandwidth to player retention trades offs would make sense.
Barsoom or Myst Only… I think the story of current day explorers traveling to non-Myst places is entirely possible and workable. Whether any such ages would make it on the MOULa server is doubtful. But I expect some fan servers to head that direction. What affect that would have on player retention is unknown. New Myst ages will pull players in and seem an obvious choice.
@ Regnad Kcin01, you seem to separate players and developers. I don’t see that separation. Developers are players for most considerations in Uru. Some means of channeling payment to developers could increase production of content and that would increase player/developer interest… retention.
@Stucuk & Regnad, Currency and trading are not big player retention factors in most games. The player interactions they can lead to do significantly affect player retention. Facebook games generate more interaction by having things gifted back and forth to advance. Players need to bring in more players to advance faster. Money systems in most Facebook games are to allow players to buy faster advancement and skip pestering their friends.
@JWP, fraud… orders of magnitude is probably accurate. SL using RL money, even disguised as Linden Dollars, has numerous and frequent attempts of fraud. Security is a constant concern for SL users.
Having RL currency would definitely have an effect on shard operators. But, even game currency that only has in game value is known to create incentive for abuse. As weak as security is on the MOULa/MOSS servers it is a certainly we would see increased abuse and hacking of the system. Any hint of unfairness or cheating is destructive to player retention.
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Concerts… do people pay real money to attend concerts in a virtual world? That question has been answered, yes. Will there be enough Uru fans willing to pay for a concert to make the development and effort worthwhile? We don’t know that answer. But without a significant number of concurrent players, probably not. Would such events bring players in? They do in other virtual worlds. I think this is a Catch-22.
Do such things as pay for concerts and currency systems make Uru cheesy? To some, definitely. But, karaoke is big in the Uru community… I think that is a bit cheesy but it works for a bunch of fans. Without good stats we can’t know what it will mean for Uru. We do know that Uru as it is now titters on the edge of extinction. Repeating the process of using the same style content with no changes is likely to produce the same results. The problem is figuring out what to change and how to make the change and keep the Myst-Uru style.
We certainly do not HAVE TO pay our game developers. Some would not accept payment if it were available. But, I think we are unlikely to see the quantity of Cyan quality content needed without some incentive for developers.
Adding a currency or trading or experience leveling features will add complexity, programming needs, and added incentive to hack an already insecure game. At some future time it might be doable. For now we need to find something easier to add that will add excitement and improve player retention.
What we want… I try to keep people moving toward what is good for the game rather than personal preferences.
@ adi, I think you have missed part of the thread. It is not about making Uru like another game. It is about finding what works for people and making sure Uru works for people. The features in other games that people enjoy and find useful help a game succeed in retaining players. Describing a feature from another game gives people a quick idea what one is talking about. Referring to features of SL Chat is not about turning Uru into SL it is about getting some of the features that make chat easier and more fun to use into Uru.
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Aloys is right, we have hashed out currency and trade systems in other threads. We are not going to gain any ground rehashing currency again now. However, it would be implemented would require lots of work and development to secure the server and add the currency or point systems. Sever security is still something more of a consideration than a work in progress. Currency or points is not something we can do now without the security.
What would facilitate better player to player interaction in Uru? We have multiple studies showing that is the single most important contributing factor to player retention and game popularity.
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