[MUD-Dev] You, the game of philosophy.

[Jon A. Lambert]

On 19 Dec 97 at 12:56, Ola Fosheim Gr=B0stad wrote:
> "Jon A. Lambert" <jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> >On 10 Dec 97 at 13:26, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> 
> >> What I find on most MUDs is that the latter operation (low speech, no=
 
> >> roleplay, pure 'win condition' gaming) is consistently rewarded, whil=
e the 
> >> actual roleplay activity is *not* rewarded... effectively punishing t=
he 
> >> roleplayer and rewarding the powergamer.
> >
> >Yes indeedy.  I would say that around 90%+ of the muds that I have seen=
 
> >that advertise themselves as role-playing muds do not fit in with my 
> >conception of it. 
> 
> That's why I would prefer to rename "role-playing" to "role-acting".
> If I should get to the point where I was able to implement a large
> scale system for my own satisfaction then I would work with a
> "theatrical park" as a metaphore.  I think "role-acting" could work if
> you organize the system as a system with groups of actors as the main
> entity.  Then the administration could interact with groups, not with
> individuals.  Some users might not want to particpate, those would
> then become "audience" or "bystanders"...
> 
> (I guess other members of the list would start to mention "tinyplots"
> and sofort, and yeah, I guess that is what I have in mind.  But there
> would be heaps of concurrent "tinyplots" acted out by groups of actors
> who don't know what other groups are trying to achieve)
> 

I recall from the threads in July, many attempts were made to define 
role-play. The funny thing is, that it caused the most heated discussion 
between the members of the list that saw themselves as role-players rather=
 
than the self-proclaimed game-only players.  I consider role-acting to be 
as fine a term as any, merely because of the misuse of the term 
role-playing to define single-user games. (Would you believe that "Magic 
the Gathering", the card game, is sometime referred to as a role-playing 
game by it's fans? I couldn't)

The biggest areas of controversy seemed to be the following:

1) Control of character - "always" consentual vs. "mostly" consentual 
2) Cooperative RP vs. Competitive RP - related to #1
3) Computer adjudication vs. GM/storyteller adjudication
4) Level of interaction with system (environment) vs. system as props
5) Immersion levels - OOC vs. IC

My personal preferences are:

"mostly" consentual - control of your character may be usurped or your
storyline might be altered to events beyond your control.  Charm,
Possession, PK, PSteal are non-consensual events.  Non-consensual
events are watched closely by the "powers on high" for OOC "abuse".  

Competitive RP - Back in the days of FTF table-top play this was
usually considered bad.  An adventuring group was often forced to
stick together and cooperate to achieve a "group" goal by the GM.
A part of this was due to practicality of running an adventure 
within a reasonable time frame.  Running adventures where groups
split-up, pursued contrary goals, or had personal agendas were
difficult to run, although quite fun when done well.  I think a mud
environment is more conducive to IC competition than forced
cooperation.  Forms of "natural" cooperation should be strongly
encourage by game systems. (cf. political & adventuring group
threads).

Adjudication - I believe that automated adjudication of combat,
skill-use, magic, etc. is desireable.  OTOH, I prefer GM/storyteller
adjudication of advancement and GM setup of major plotlines 
Big-plots as opposed to tiny-plots.  It is important to note that 
automated advancement is _impossible_ in my game.  This is a very
important check on "non-consensual" activity and the "jerk".

I prefer strong interaction with environmental systems.  Be they
NPCs, economies, ecologies, etc.  That is players do not merely utilize 
objects as props as is common in some MUSH environments.  They must
live within the parameters of the game environs.  This might also be
considered to impact one's storyline adversely.    

I prefer heavy IC immersion levels.  I don't like global channels,
chat lines, and across the mud tells.  However I have set aside some
areas on the mud to be used for OOC communication.

--
Jon A. Lambert
"Everything that deceives may be said to enchant" - Plato