[MUD-Dev] Guilds & Politics [was Affecting the World]

[Marian Griffith]

On Sun 07 Dec, Mike Sellers wrote:
> At 01:10 PM 12/5/97 PST8PDT, Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad wrote:

[snip about having an increasing number of jerks in muds]

> >I've got one question here.  Both UO and M59 was marketed as
> >roleplaying games right.  What's wrong about being a jerk then?  Will
> >this tendency translate well to non-roleplaying games?
>=20
> Theoretically, nothing _should_ be wrong with playing a jerk.  The problem
> is that, as currently constructed, online rpgs favor the jerks, the
> killers, and in general the aggressors, while limiting more severely those
> who choose more traditional/edifying roles to play.  In effect, "killing
> things" becomes the path of least resistance, and dealing with characters
> that have borne the brunt of this becomes a large focus for the game (and
> the support organization).

It is also that acting a jerk does not require any cooperation or game
structure. To do it they just need a victim.=20

>  Thus, those who desire to play in anti-social
> roles find they can get some entertainment at others' expense, and yet they
> perceive nothing wrong with doing so, since the game was clearly
> constructed to enable actions like theirs

You are describing somebody who is being a jerk. This is easy to do.
Roleplaying a jerk (or evil character in general) is much harder and
not many players can do it successfully.

> (the customer support problems
> come because of this inherent disconnect -- in Quake, everyone *knows* that
> others are out to get them, while in online RPGs most players do not make
> such an assumption).

Rightly so. Roleplaying is a cooperative environment. If somebody deci-
des to ruin my fun in the game  because he thinks it is 'in character'
then he is definitely not playing the same game as I am. Roleplaying a
conflict with an evil character is definitely possible.  You could try
to log on to e.g. Elendor mush. This is a tolkien based game and there
are players for both the good and the evil side of that story and main
part of the game is about the conflicts between those two groups. How-
ever  there is a lot of communication going on  to ensure that this is
fun for all players. An orc character can not simply walk into Bree to
kill every inhabitant. Or if they tried they would be ridiculed by the
other players.

>  If instead, playing a jerk/thief/killer carried with
> it some discernable risk or consequences that were as onerous to those
> players as being killed is to most others, fewer people would take this
> route, and the rest of the online society would be more able to deal with
> those remaining on its own.  Finding such risks and consequences is not a
> trivial matter. =20

It is indeed not easy.  And you have to deal with two separate issues
here that both involve players spoiling the fun for others. The first
is the bully. This player attempts to spoil the fun for others. There
is not much you can do to stop this, except perhaps banning them. The
other is  the player who cannot roleplay.  Education seems to be more
suited to these, but in addition significant risks to playing an evil
character might warn them away from trying. This should not be a pri-
mary way of dealing with this issue though (I think).

Marian
--=20
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey