[MUD-Dev] The 'Socialiser' problem

[Miroslav Silovic]

> Has anyone else approached these problems? The only feasible ways of 
> solving them that I can think of, involve the use of either technology 
> or magic. However, this restricts the general theme of the game, which I 
> do not want to do. In any case, dealing with the problems in this way 
> appears rather contrived, at best.

Actually, modeling reality is at odds with socializing only if you don't
require any user cooperation. If you do, then it is understood that pages,
channels, bulletin boards, etc are out of character. Users, in this model,
are assumed to cooperate. Those that don't cooperate are usually shunned,
excluded, deleted or sitebanned.

If you do decide to go with the player cooperation, you can at least make
most of the OOC communication. I found it incredibly useful medium in the
story-oriented game. The reason is that players, on the channels, can
arrange very complex events easily. In the game with no OOC communication,
the work dynamic and the quality of experience is usually maintained
through active administrators (corollary: inactive administrator can
ruin the entire game). With OOC communication, it often takes only one
active, involved player to make things roll.

	Miro