Game Progression: The Rate You Get Stuff
The idea that things must be fair and equal despite a disparity in resources is an interesting conundrum that transcends online breedable games like ours. And I’d like to talk about this issue for a moment.
In real life I have a hobby that I enjoy tremendously. Dog training. I’ve only been doing serious dog training for about a year but I’ve learned quite a bit in that year and my dog is so much more pleasurable to be around since we embarked upon this hobby together. I enjoy this hobby so much that I spend every available moment working with my dog. When he learns new things he and I are both very happy and we are both proud of our accomplishments. Yes, for those wondering, dogs do become very proud when they learn new things.
Together my dog and I attend weekly classes where we learn new techniques and some day we hope to be good enough to compete in canine freesytle competitions. If you’ve never seen canine freestyle and are interested, take a look at this video
In our class there are dog/owner combinations that are far more advanced than we are and each of these dog/owner combinations has an advantage that my dog and I simply cannot compete with. Each of these dog/owner combinations have better or more plentiful resources than I do for getting the job done. Here are some examples of resource disparities that prohibit me from advancing as well or as quickly as the other dog/owner combinations:
- One dog is more predisposed to learning than my dog is and this presents a competitive disadvantage to me. I obviously can’t just dump my beloved dog for a “better dog” to increase my advantage so I am resource limited in this situation.
- Another dog has an owner that does not have any other time commitments. Because she doesn’t have anywhere that she must be on a daily basis she can work with her dog as often as the dog is willing. In this case I am at a competitive disadvantage because I lack the resource of time.
- Other dogs have owners with more disposable income than I do. These owners pay someone who is more skilled than I to train their dogs for them. I cannot compete on this level because I am both unwilling and unable to spare the financial resources to succeed in this manner.
Despite the resource disparities I’ve outlined above, I don’t really feel disadvantaged or like my progress in the dog training world is bad. I set goals for myself and my dog. We work on learning new things when I have time and when he feels up to it and we reach our goals when we can. We will compete some day, I know it, and in the meanwhile we will enjoy the journey together.
Video games, including breedables within SL, come with similar resource disparities. Time and money are the most obvious. The cool thing about games is that they often provide a variety of ways for users to enjoy their journey despite the disparities. That is what we’ve tried to do here. It is obviously not realistic that we can solve the resource disparity conundrum and it would be foolish and dishonest of us to say that we have or that we can. It exists in everything.
What we can do is provide you with fun things to do whether you have 2 Mossms or 100 Mossms. We have specifically designed the game so that someone with 2 Mossms can progress and make something happen every few days. It is our goal to make sure everyone can play, progress, and have fun and we will continue to create and provide game play elements for all types of players. However, it is up to us as individuals to be realistic about what we can accomplish and to make peace with it.
This does not mean that we are uninterested in player feedback. On the contrary, if you are not enjoying the game play at your level, we want to hear about it and we want to know why.
i believe so, im advancing nicely and enjoying it as i do, i have set goals i want to reach and things i want to try,this is by far one of the best breedables i have ever had the pleasure to be a part of, there fun, interactive which most arnt, they also do things no others do,
and while im taking part in this beta im also making plans for what i will do once they are released, working out a stratagy that will help me, thinking about land and the number of prims i want to dedicate to mossms, this is the first breedable that is actually making me consider upgrading my land from 4000sms to 8000sqms, so i can play as i wish and still have prims for my main sl business, i love mossms and the whole concept, i cant champion you guys enough
Please keep Linden money out of the game. Once you let Linden money in big breeders and the people with deep pockets will buy items as fast as possible in order to harvest the various minerals and such to create new Mossms as fast as possible and will flood the market.. It happens with every breedable that I have been in.
I wish there was a way to limit how many starter packs you can buy, at least that way everybody starts out fairly even, but impossible I guess with everybody having alts all over the place.
To add to what Progenitor said above...
You will need to buy starter kits and you will need to pay for food, everything else you will need or want will be obtained through game progression.
That is what I meant by trying to keep Linden money out of the game. Starter kits and food are fine.
I have seen too many breedable creators who look for the fast buck and then take the money and run. I can personally think of at least 3 or 4 breedables that have crashed and burned because of that.
You are looking for sustainablilty,. You are on the right path.
The progression so far has kept me interested and very anxious to get more. Maybe work towards something bigger like a little resort island or lab for them or something.... just a thought :)
This article is a bit "old", but I would like to add some comments. In EVERYTHING, there are "big" and "small" - breedables, houses, cars, whatever. If you want a big house, you have to spend big money for it; if you get a small house, it will cost less. Make sense?
"Big breeders" seemed to be thought of as some curse. "Big breeders" are spending big money. They are supporting the breedable you have. It's simple economics - more money = more "resources" (not game resources) for the creators allowing them to do more. I have yet to see a breedable go under because of big breeders ruining it. In most cases, if not all, "big breeders" leave a breedable for a reason and that same reason is why the breedable fails. One breedable DID try to "make things fair" - they lowered the chances of rares for big breeders to make it "fair" to little breeders. Is that fair??? I had over 200 and might have had a 1 in 100 chance of a rare. Someone who had 10 had a 1 in 10 chance. Needless to say when word got out, so did the big breeders. That breedable is now gone.
If someone buys 20 4 pair starter kits (according to the boxes that's 44000L or aprox $176US) should they not expect to get more/gain more than the person who buys 1 pair starter kit for 800L (aprox. $3.20US)? That is life. One cannot expect to get a new luxury car for $1000 because that's all they can afford. It also doesn't mean one can't get a car because one doesn't have $70,000 to spend on one. Each buys what they feel they can afford combined with what they want. Some will buy a car dealership. They will invest a lot of money - FAR more than the person who buys a used car. Their hope is they will make something - some do; some don't.
In short, Mossms seem to have created an excellent breedable. There is no way to make it "fair" to all and there shouldn't be. Different people have different goals. For some, 1 pair will meet that goal. These Mossms are fun just to watch. I love them. Some like subcompacts, some want a stretch limo. Catch is, if you want the stretch limo you have to pay for it.
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March 4, 2013
11 years, 2 months ago
Vesper said,
The imbalance we're talking about here, is, if I understand correctly, that people who play harder and put more into the game get more out of it. How is that more true of Mossms than other games?
Also, we designed this carefully so that people playing with 2-4 mossms would be able to progress and do things every few days, while still having fun and wanting more. It sounds to me like we're succeeding with that, right?