[MUD-Dev] Character evolution

[Nathan Yospe]

On Mon, 25 Aug 1997, Marian Griffith wrote:

:On Thu 21 Aug, Jon A. Lambert wrote:

:> > Caliban Tiresias Darklock <caliban at darklock.com> said....

:> My initial thoughts were negative on this.  Yet Nathan had piqued my
:> curiosity with questions on whether I was implementing a "deus 
:> charis" concept.  Hopefully I got the latin right there.  Basically 
:> it is the forced attention/attraction of mortals by deities.  This 
:> shows up frequently in the Greek Mythos.  The rape of Cytheria, etc.
:> It is also not uncommon in many darker settings like the Lovecraftian
:> Mythos with Shub-Niggurath and other demonic beings. 

This worries me. I wasn't particularly thinking of this when I brought it
up... I mean, I REALLY wasn't thinking of this.

:Neither the Greek nor Lovecraft  were particularly interested in the
:emotional and mental state  of the female survivors of the incident.
:They were creating (hi)stories where the rape / forced attention was
:part of the dramatic development.  Much the same way as in contempo-
:rary holywood movies women get attacked and murdered either to allow
:some flesh to be shown or to spur the (male) hero into action.  When
:developing games  you must be carefull  not to make the same mistake
:some players make  when they justify their actions with: it's only a
:game. Traumatic experiences do not care if it you are playing a game
:or not.  Because it seems to be very difficult  for the average male
:of about college age to imagine how emotionally devastating this ex-
:perience is. This discussion however is hardly suited for this list.
:Dark theme or not, there is little valid reason to include this kind
:of commands  that potentially run roughshot over the emotions of the
:players,  and a lot of valid reasons  to exclude them from your game
:without becoming overly politically correct.

"Rape" and similar behavior is the single forbidden on Sing2. Consequence?
If possible, a closing of the guilty party's account by their sysadmin.

:> Your "Do NOT under ANY circumstances" only encourages me.  Severe 
:> violations of social standards/political correctness, yada, yada 
:> appeal to me.  A recently arrived and departed(?) list member 
:> sort of touched of some of these:

:I know you well enough that you mean 'appeal' in a purely theoretical
:sense. Personally I have seen (though thankfully not experienced) the
:practical effects  of violations of social standards.  I can only say
:that they do not belong in a game setting.

I spend a good five hours a week trying to help the victims of a related
form of violation through the aftermath. As a former victim myself, and a
person far too familiar with the consequences, I must strongly emphasize -
there are no guiltless parties when a person gets away with abuse. This
includes US, as hosts of the involved persons.

--

"You? We can't take you," said the Dean, glaring at the Librarian.
"You don't know a thing about guerilla warfare." - Reaper Man,
Nathan F. Yospe  Registered Looney                   by Terry Pratchett
yospe at hawaii.edu   http://www2.hawaii.edu/~yospe           Meow