[MUD-Dev] Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface)

[Vadim Tkachenko]

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coder at ibm.net wrote:
> 
> On 09/11/97 at 06:22 PM, "Jon A. Lambert" <jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com> said:
> >On  9 Nov 97 at 11:00, Marian Griffith wrote:
> 
> >> Why grant players powers above those the guards enjoy. If players can
> >> have little fortresses  that others find it impossible to enter  then
> >> why not a town as well?
> 
> >Good point.  The only answer I can think of, is that players have
> >feelings.  Mud monsters, well, they're made out of rubber. ;)
> 
> One could champion the idea of reducing players to the level of
> monsters/NPC's as part of the game definition...

Why reducing? Lets' consider:

Q: What is a difference between a monster and NPC?
A: None, except that NPC is apparently is able to talk and [pretend to]
express other sign of intelligence (which presumes a different level of
hostility, too).

Do you consider a dragon a monster or NPC? In according to fantasy
books, dragons are highly intelligent and can talk many languages...

Q: What is a difference between a PC and NPC?
A: None, except that NPC is being controlled by the computer, and PC by
the player (which is not true in some MUDs when the player is offline).

Conclusion: NPC == PC == monster, to some extent.

By the way, if you look at that from the implementation point of view,
you'll find the structure greatly simplified - why, I've recently seen
some RPG product, in which the NPC and Monster classes weren't even
derived from a common ansector!

All you need to do is just attach the different behavior control
adapters - and then, a situation is possible when, say, admin is able to
take control over some NPC/monster and RP it...

> J C Lawrence

--
Still alive and smile stays on,
Vadim Tkachenko <VadimT at 4CS.Com>
--
UNIX _is_ user friendly, he's just very picky about who his friends are
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