zaroba wrote:weren't most of the RBs team econs? did they ever work out as fully hoped?
sorry, i gotta call FUD here.
for the people that bothered showing up, i'd say they worked out perfect. each time i make a world i usually have some broad plan, but it always comes down to one specific scenario that i think would be really swell. i start getting total tunnel vision on this one thing happening, and what a fun game experience it might be for a player and how i'd probably enjoy spectating it when it happens, and that keeps me entertained long enough to finish the island. the only time this didn't work was rb1. even isle of unfairness achieved it's ultimate goal.
i think because a lot of players have acclimated to playing the game in one particular way, that way is the game for them, and they've no interest enduring an additional learning curve and playing a new sort of game, which is fine. rb worlds -- or any non-classic econ worlds -- probably won't have as many players as any given zoric until our playerbase is rounded out a bit more, but the players that do take a liking to the gameplay seem to get horribly addicted (i consider *usage times of 100+ hours for a two week game to be pretty addicted

) , and suspect many have had quite rewarding experiences with it. that said although we're not breaking any records here, there's been many a day with 15+ players on past rb islands.
largely this happens with players who are new to the game who aren't influenced by the rather veteran meme that 03 econ == the universal as a whole. and let's face it -- other types of game genres are insanely successful outside of our little sphere: one might argue the first person shooter genre has been equally if not more popular than the majority of econ titles out there, so it can't be simply that "economy rules" as far as games go.
i'm not trying to be offensive here, but i'm a bit concerned that if people continue to look at only one particular gameplay as "the game", in compromises the entire spirit of the thing and we're just going to wind up with a bunch of worlds that just feel copy-and-pasted to the outside observer.
heck, my vote's not for a classicon or a team one: i'd rather see something entirely new.