[MUD-Dev] "Social control", was butthead features

[Jeff Kesselman]

At 04:38 PM 8/27/97 PST8PDT, you wrote:
>I'd just call a bug). For example, we found a problem related to 
>"social control" measures like reputation systems in that remote 
>regions such as farms or villages are unprotected to the extent that 
>towns are, tend to predictably have a supply of fresh victims to 
>butcher, and offer enough sustenance to make players not need towns at 
>all. So players were able to live quite comfortably with the negative 
>infamy without feeling any repercussions.

Thsi was why we amde our system global. We coudl justify it by the nature
of the world but we designed it becuase we didnt want players just "going
elsewhere" to avodi teh repercussions.  Outland bandits we want to BNE
outland bandits and basicly be shunned by regular society.

One big difference (I thin kanyway) between your philosophy and ours is
that we have no problem and make no bones about slanting the worlkd balance
i nafvor of 'good".  AD&D is abotu heroes and heroic stories.  Sucha  slant
is inhearent to the game and in fact is specified in the TSR Standards for
Content.

Evil is nota long term viable option unless oen si EVRY VERY careufl, or at
least thats our goal.  The poitn of evil it to wreak alittle havok and then
be brought low by the heros.

>
>To an extent this is desirable in that you want lawlessness to take 
>control of the wilderness--I think both UO and DSOII have that as a 
>goal--yet you don't want the utter scum to have free run of the place 

Yep, see the above.  A woprld where good di not win over all in the long
run in the majority of cases wouldnt fit o8r goals, but a world with no evi
lwoudl be boring :)


>Actually, we only tag the character. I don't know why exactly there's 
>the rumor that we tag the entire account.
>

Hmm inetresting. The rumor definately is otu there. ofcourse MUD rumros are
an amazing phenomenon in themselves, and a valuable tool for admin if yo
understand how to work them ;)

We debated character or accoutn back nad forth a numeber of tiems.  The
advantage of character tagging is that it allows good playes to play both
"heroes" and "villains".

the bad part is thast as a lamer-control (as we call it) it gives them the
out when their infamy gets too bad of just starting another character.


JK
Jeff Kesselman
Snr. Game Integration Engineer
TEN -- The Total Entertainment Network -- www.ten.net

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