zone creation

[kiryan]

I was doing some thinking about zone creation and the breakdown of work.

1. Writing descriptions is probably 80% of the work in developing a new zone.

Yet a majority of players have their brief togged...

2. The most common "bitches" about new zones is about the fights, objects, or quests

Yet much less time is invested in those aspects of zone development.

I'm not advocating this approach because quality of content is one thing that still differentiates us from other muds... but I it was a funny thought.

[Vaprak]

Naw, if you slack on the descriptions you get a ton of bishing about that as well.

You can make some of the people happy some of the time, but you can't make all of the people happy all of the time.

[Karenthael]

Vaprak is correct. Take, for instance, the new island content. I spent hours working on that and when it went in the major complaint was the repetitive room descriptions. For me it isn't that I couldn't write different descriptions, it was that I was trying to hurry and get things in that the players would be able to use. More fool I. As you may notice, I am no longer here under my other name, I went away after that largely due to my own sensitivity over that reception. BUT you will find that most builders are sensitive over the reaction of players on every aspect of their work, especially when you have been doing it as long as we had.
Karen

[kiryan]

wow people complain about descriptions? i had no idea.

[Sarell]

It certainly is interesting. I appreciate a nicely... concise not long ... worded zone. But I only read it the first time through then brief.

[Shevarash]

I think that to alot of people, the quality of the descriptions is an obvious indicator of the overall quality of the zone. You don't always pay attention to them, but you notice if they're not there - and shoddy descriptions make the whole thing seem like an amateurish affair.

Just a thought.

[Tasan]

Couldn't agree more. The zone descriptions are there for those that like atmosphere and not pure HnS without any connector. There are writer's who purposely write contrived and long descriptions for a reason, usually tying in with quests somewhere or something else and those players that are smart enough to tie it all together "win". I can go to any LP or Merc mud, see the one line sentance for descriptions, or I can play somewhere where time was spent and there is real quality.

[Yarash]

HnS

What is this?

[Xisiqomelir]

HnS

What is this?

Hack 'n Slash

[Dezzex]

Yep. It's kinda sad, but at least 50% of a zone writer's work goes unnoticed in the form of descriptions and other minutia. Shev's right (for me anyway) -- that effort is not always noticed, but it is critisized when it is subpar.

Especially if you're not a HnS MUDder, and I'd wager most Toril players are not strictly HnS, descriptions are a critical reflection of an area's quality. I always found myself never giving any respect to a MUD that had descriptions that were silly, one line, and/or repetitive.

I do think it's a great idea to tie them to gameplay via quest hints and storyline. It's more fun for the writer, since they get to divulge in some verbosity without needing to think about how to describe tree trunk #2353 in their generic forest. It's more fun for the player, who discovers another facet of the zone by trying to solve an obscure quest through well-provided hints. BGR does this to an extent, though if I recall it was a bit difficult to filter out what was relevant and what was just story filler.