[MUD-Dev] Re: Issues from the digests and Wout's list

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <3.0.32.19970424203547.00a11bbc at mail.tenetwork.com>, on 04/24/97 
   at 11:01 PM, Jeff Kesselman <jeffk at tenetwork.com> said:

>At 08:12 PM 4/24/97 PST8PDT, you wrote:
>>In <3.0.32.19970423130443.0074a1e8 at mail.tenetwork.com>, on 04/23/97 
>>   at 10:26 PM, Jeff Kesselman <jeffk at tenetwork.com> said:

>>I would much rather see a game where the sexes are utterly different
>>almost if not to the extent of being processed/considered as different
>>species.  
>...
>>I'm trying desperately here to remember the SF book where mels were
>>physically huge, tended to be move slowly, possessed of enourmous
>>strength, resiliance, and endurance, were prone to aggression and
...
>Then you arent TALKING about male and female in the human sense. The
>question as posed hadno suggestion tha this was anythign other then
>humans you were playing..

No.  Read it again.  I merely gave a non-human example which made the
extent of the difference in handling sex explicitly clear.  There's no
reason the same level of functional difference could not be maintained
for a human emulation.

>Oh and btw, why can't FEMALES be the large agressive ones and MALES
>be the small, long lived ones?  

Actually they may have been in the book.  Its of little importance. 
When writing the original message I wasn't quite sure and reversed the
sexes several times.  It would be quite easy to give a good
explanation for either position.  As a player I wouldn't care as long
as the sexual dichotomy were significant.

Another possible model would be the ant/bee, where males are both
extremely rare and short lived (only produced when a queen is
produced, and that only when a queen dies or for a new colony), and
females are equally rare but enourmously long lived, and the vast
majority is neuter.  Similarly the model of various marine wrasses
could be followed:  All individuals are born female.  Only those
dominant over their social group internally mutate to become male
(lose dominance and they mutate back to female (yes the organs are
physically absorbed and new ones produced)).  Either model would work
quite well for a human scenario given some explained genetic tampering
(viral?).

>Frnakly it soudsn to me like your
>book did nothing mroe then exaggerate and cannonize in "species"  the
>prevailing myths about males and females already existant in western
>society.

Quite likely, but unimportant.  If you wish you can view it as a
reactionary allegory, but that does nothing to change the value of the
concept, the concept's principles, or the book itself.

>It probably would have offnded me therefor, too.

As always, that's your choice.

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...