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Comment by lubujackson | Hacker News Reader

I think door games have a lot of interesting similarities to modern mobile games. First, door games tended to limit you to X number of moves per day in order you to play a small bit each day. Multiplayer was sometimes much more interesting in door games (ala TradeWars) than some modern AAA mobile games that limit interactions quite a bit (such as Boom Beach). I'm surprised there hasn't been more of a renaissance of door games onto mobile devices already.

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I think the audiences are mutually incompatible. The old-school folks who grew up on BBS door games are, by and large, not happy with the microtransaction model.

And the reasons for limited turns are diametrically opposed. In door games, turns were limited to prevent players with more spare time from dominating the game. In mobile games, it's to encourage players with disposable income to spend extra money so that they can dominate the game.

> In door games, turns were limited to prevent players with more spare time from dominating the game

And to prevent them from tying up what was very likely the BBS's only phone line.

I feel the limit on time you can spend per day would fit more with busy professional lives. For me, it always made me greatly anticipate the next day when my turns would be replenished. That would make actually playing it much more special.

Also, the reduced audience available for the BBS made cheating less of an issue (at least at my local BBS)

The MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing seems to be essentially a browser-based door game, complete with turn limits, and it was still running last I checked. Might be worth a look if that's what you're into.

So I've heard, although in my area most BBSes limited users to an hour a day anyway.

The entire model was totally different. Door games were usually shareware. Authors wanted sysops to pay a registration fee, and they used different tactics to encourage that. Sometimes the game had extra features crippled unless you registered; sometimes there was a time limit after which the game would be unplayable if you didn't register. But note that the registrations were paid by SYSOPS rather than the individual end users. (Though sometimes users on a BBS would chip in together to help their sysop register a favorite game)

I agree, I think the limited turns/day format is prime for a come back!

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