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

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

"Koster, Raph" <rkoster at origin.ea.com> wrote:
>On Friday, December 05, 1997 7:10 AM, Ola Fosheim=20
>Gr=F8stad[SMTP:olag at ifi.uio.no] wrote:
>> I've got one question here.  Both UO and M59 was marketed as
>> roleplaying games right.  What's wrong about being a jerk then?=20
> Will
>> this tendency translate well to non-roleplaying games?
>
>That was more than one question! As for the first question: being a=20
>jerk, of course, doesn't necessarily equal roleplaying. In either=20
>case, we have far more jerks than a roleplaying game usually supports=20
>in terms of villains. :)

I'm really sorry about my math skills :^) Actually, what I was
thinking of was: Being a jerk can be great fun!  So, if one enters
what one believes is a game, why not be a jerk?  Of course, there are
lots of jerks on usenet...  Anyway, my guess is that the jerk ratio
will depend on how the environment presents itself to the user. AND
how social norms are being portrayed in the environment.  I believe
that you will be able to have local villages with dedicated users if
you provide good support for artistic/creative userbuilding.  Maybe
only a few will want to build, but I bet a lot of people will like to
join the group with the most fantastic castle.

>"roleplayers" both places... When writing my reply to Mike earlier,=20
>every time I made a statement I kept checking it in my mind against=20
>the Dibbell article, and going "did this hold true on LambdaMOO? Yes."=20

Where is the Dibbell article?

>I suspect the nature of the environment may change the nature of the=20
>manifestation of this social trend, and the degree of it, but it won't=20
>change it THAT much...

MMhhh.. Maybe.  Maybe one should make games that only appeal to old
mothers. *grin* Or rather, games that only appeal to 25+ ?  That's
where the money is anyway, isn't it?

>Legend has tell, gtell, global channels, dynamically themed=20
>conferences, OOC spaces, newsletter, discussion lists, web chat board,=20
>bulletin boards, and STILL gets groups forming their own off-mud and=20
>off-site channels of group communication.

Yeah, but why?  Privacy?  Character by character response? Efficiency?
A sense of ownership?

>> I've got another question.  Does thousands (or rather millions) of
>> players add anything vital to the experience at all?  Maybe=20
>thousands
>> of separate systems with several hundred players each is equally
>> rewarding, even more rewarding, because the probability of bumping
>> into a friend is higher.
>
>A straight answer: I don't actually know. Perhaps those who have=20
>extensively played Meridian 59 (which follows the model you suggest)=20
>and UO both could offer a perspective on it.

I don't know either.  My guess is that if one tweak the environment in
such a way that a particular server appeals to one group of people,
then they will find the environment more enjoying with less people.  I
don't know exactly how to tweak though..  I guess this is more or less
what noncommercial muds are doing.  I guess it works then.

Actually, I belive this is a rather important issue: increasing the
probability for users, that can relate to eachother, to get to know
eachother. (please rewrite this sentence for me)

Ola.