[MUD-Dev] Wild west (was Guilds & Politics)

[Jon A. Lambert]

On 13 Dec 97 at 10:26, Mike Sellers wrote:
> 
> This probably sounds off-topic, but in addition to my other heretical
> ideas, I think as mud design matures we need to move away from viewing the
> designers of the world as the 'gods' of the world.  The current terminology
> is cute and neat if you want to feed your ego (a valid and pervasive
> motivation in mud-land), but it confuses the OOC and IC issues.  There
> should be, I think, a pantheon of gods, or a single God, or no God at all,
> depending on how you want to structure the world -- and of course, the
> admins/designers might embody themselves as one of the Gods from time to
> time, but then they are interacting with the PCs *in character.*  We won't
> get very far in terms of promoting role playing or an immersive IC
> experience if clearly OOC people keep popping in to mess around with the
> world or its inhabitants.  
>

Hmm... I think my thoughts are very similar.  The "gods" of my mud-world
are literally that.  They are NPCs that directly control environmental
systems of the world.  They may be temporarily played by most anyone.  
There is a larger amount of trust and responsibilty attached to them than 
other NPCs.  They have no inherent game administratiion capability. 
Administration functions are attached to user accounts.  Game-play does not 
revolve around aspiring to become a god, since gods are pretty much static 
and part of the thematic backdrop.  I hope to actually "play" in my mud one 
day as any NPC that strikes my fancy.  I definitely agree with keeping the 
OOC drop-in to a minimum and separated from in-game characters.  Any OOC 
administration will done, not from a character body, but from an admin 
account.  There will be just a disembodied voice in the character's head. 
Actually I've been toying with keeping this communication one-way. :P

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