It's a simple thing to do, but having some NPC characters who exist in the game world that will always greet players with their chosen name shouldn't be too tough to pull off. Beyond the Norm effect, there are several other golden rules to consider as well.
Everything from staying away from lots and lots of numbers to keeping the features down are covered by the list. Stuff that some developers seem to have forgotten (or never knew about) in the past ten years. However, one particular item really stood out to us on the list in regards to MMOs.
- Include cooperation. Even in basically competitive games you can allow for alliances, collusion or at least less cutthroat behavior. In M.U.L.E. I used an interesting trick that would not allow a "Winner" unless a certain threshold of colony success was reached. In order to win players had to sometimes help each other out so the whole colony would thrive thus making the balance closer and play more interesting.
