More Advertising of Mossms
No, not all games have winners and losers. When I was growing up we had pet breeding games where there was no end and no winner or loser. Today's MMOs are perpetual, no one wins you just keep right on playing. All games are not defined the same and you can enjoy advancement without having to kill the opponent (so to speak).
then again whats the point of the game. i'd like to clearly understand that aspect.
Funny thing about game design: whenever you implement any piece of a game, you can always say: "And the purpose of that is, WHAT?"
The purpose of Mossms is different things, and it's different things to different people. It's fun to make little Mossm houses, and little communities, and places for them to go. It's fun to make babies, and make babies with your friend's Mossms. It's fun to see a little of the parents in the babies. It's fun to watch babies play and grow up and become adults, and then have them make babies. It's fun to get new kinds of things you haven't seen before. Heck, I'm often surprised and amazed by the combinations I see, and I wrote the dang thing! And of course it's fun to have something to do in SL with your friends and family. It's fun to have a reason to make real use of your land, and tons of people have bought land in SL for the first time just so that they could build a community of Mossms with their friends and family.
But that doesn't really fully answer your question. After you breed and breed and breed, and after you've built your Mossm houses then towns then cities then nations, and traded with your friends in search of fresh blood, you want more.
That's totally fair, and we're working on that. We're always working on that. We haven't scratched the surface on what it's possible to do with Mossms, and we'll never run out of awesome ideas. We're working on the ability to train your mossms new skills, including wrestling gators and racing, and quite a few other things that I'm pretty sure will flabbergast you.
Then, the question is, "Ok, so gator wrestling and other sports. Fine. But the purpose of that is, WHAT?" Well, those things will enable your Mossms to learn new abilities and do new fun things that you haven't seen yet, such as new ways of interacting with people. Tricks. Stuff to show off to your friends. Things to pass on to their offspring. Stuff that will amaze and delight. Certainly, it's not like anything else that's ever been done before in SL, at least.
From a game-design perspective, we're constantly working on making new ways for the things that you do in Mossms to have new uses and reasons, so that we'll have more and more answers for that eternal question in game design: "And the purpose of that IS?"
But from a larger perspective, the real purpose of Mossms is to remind people about some of the best things in life. The simple pleasure of having a playmate when you were a kid in school. The simple pleasure of spending some relaxed time with a friend. The simple pleasure of silliness, of friendship. Mossms are carefully designed such that if you watch them for a little while, they will tell you all kinds of stories about what is best in life. You'll see glimpses of yourself in them when you were a kid, and glimpses of your real world pets, and your children and grandchildren. In short, you'll be reminded about the magic that's still alive in the world. That will always be the true purpose of Mossms, and I can't think of a more noble cause for any form of entertainment.
Myself I have/breed the mossms because I want.. because they are cute.. they are amusing to watch.. because I want to make some mossm look a certain way. I can say I'm glad I do not have/keep breedables based on what markets do or not personally.
I'd like to amplify something that Asymmetrical said:
I think our traffic numbers at Cyclonium are low because most purchases are being made from affiliate locations. There is no major reason to come to our sim.
We specifically designed Mossms so that people would not have any need to come to our sim. I have been involved with lots of SL businesses over the years, and I've designed things in the past that encouraged traffic at different locations. When designing Mossms, we intentionally vetted out any ideas that required lots of traffic at our main location. That's because we wanted to keep the main location free for people who are interested in seeing what Mossms can do. Having 30 people camped out here all the time would run contrary to that goal.
Also, we don't run bots, and we don't do anything to try to boost the traffic numbers. We don't try to pretend, and we're always up front. But if it's a number that'd make you, or other people you'd like to impress feel better about Mossms, perhaps we should consider doing something about it.
I'm perfectly capable of running bots; I've built them in the past for others. Perhaps we should fire some up and boost our traffic numbers! We could also do some things where hanging out on our sim confers certain benefits on you, as other breedables routinely do. I haven't seen the need to so far, and have instead been focusing on other aspects of things that'll make Mossms more fun. To me, Mossms should be more about hanging out in your own place with things you created, rather than forcing you to come spend time with our stuff, but I have an open mind on the matter.
The purpose of the game is much like leveling in a video game. You start out small and work your way up unlocking cooler things as you progress.
We intentionally made it so that a new player cannot come in and simply buy their way to the top but actually have to work at it like everyone else, even if they bought a cool Mossm at the auction house.
I have been here in SL since 2006
Have seen many People and Breedables come and Go, myself included.
Mossm is by far the most interactive and fun. A Game it is, it is not easy to make the babies for certain collections.
To me not all games are to WIN, what happens when you do then you leave cause you have reached the END. That is no fun.
I like the perpetual living and progressing of these critters. I have tried many too here in SL and Mossm is only one I never have removed...
Size of Group is nothing many others have larger groups and they don't do anything more other than cause drama.
I love watching them and making the babies when I come home from work.
I have been here since Beta and I run a sim for breedables so I have a few more RL resources to do it with but that isn't the point of mossm.
I too had to buy all the stuff for them in the market.( OMG you should see how many flower vases I have ) Time isn't Fast here, just like RL it takes time to make it right. Renting from others is a Fast way for others to do it and some don't have the Land to do it. Anyone can make a sim for them also is easy \o/
Keep up Great Work I know is hard to do when your not a Giant Video Game Company with tons of employees working for you.
Cool Brain, Progenitor and Asymetrical you Rock \0/
My interpretation of the point of the game AND the prize is this.....
"FUN"
I look at my mossms and the first thing I do is SMILE. Already I'm a winner before thinking about breeding, buying or selling.
It really IS as simple as that in my opinion :)
i agree mr mickey...but still the remarks of fast cat are very true...
" why does my ability to breed two mossms consist of having "X" number of mossms alive and healthy.. im talking about the amount of resources required to breed"
i have just 2 beautiful mossms ...but breeding them on planet 7....impossible...almost....
i enjoy looking at them, but breeding.....ehhhhh.......
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Sept. 17, 2014
10 years, 3 months ago
You know i love mossms and feel they are the best breedable (or maybe game) out there. their coats particle everything theyre awesome. please dont get me wrong there.
That being said, then whats the point of the game? to work and work and breed and breed?
whats the pay off?
aren't games supposed to be played to win? who wins? whats the prize?
Is this a breedable disguised as a game? Is this a game disguised as a breedable? I'm only seeking clarity on this as now the waters are muddy.
Regardless, you know how passionate i have and will continue to be about mossms. but when people who inspired me to get into this are leaving and becoming disenchanted, its sad and it is what has spurned me to bring this to your attention. at the end of the day its your product to do as you wish.
Sincerely,
Fastcat, aka, "mad hatter".