[MUD-Dev] Alright... IF your gonan do DESIESE...

[Matt Chatterley]

On Wed, 28 May 1997, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> Adam Wiggins wrote:
 
> > I still think it's possible to get the social interaction of a role-player
> > combined with the detailed game world of a roll-player.  Call me a dreamer..
> > but I really don't think it's that difficult.
> 
> I think it might be important to realise that social interaction *also*
> needs a detailed game world... probably MORE detailed than a roll-player
> would need. While the roll-player might be satisfied with 

Note that some care is required when trying to 'define' roll and role
players. While it's fair to regard them as different types of player, you
inevitably have your 'half-breeds'. I enjoy rollplaying a great deal - but
role-play properly from time to time. As someone commented those, the
latter (henceforth RP, given that Rollplay will be RlP), is actually much
harder, and much more involved. It also seems that RP environments put
much more weight on the player, and can be quite stressful. I play muds
for the social experience as much as anything, and find the atmospheres
better on RlP styled muds (I still regard this as different to the
mindless hack'n'slash of stock Diku).
 
> 	Cave
> 	You are in a deep dark cave.
> 	There is a goblin here.

This is the sort of thing I expect from a stock diku etc - depending how
you define RlP, more detail is probably warranted.
 
> The role-player would prefer something like
> 
> 	Deep beneath Caer Crannag
> 	You have penetrated nearly a mile below the surface. The sound
> 	of dripping water comes from indeterminate direction, and the
> 	walls are slick with a thin wetness. The walls stretch over you
> 	like orange and yellow curtains, the rock hanging in thick folds 
> 	from the ceiling. 
> 	A small greenish creature clad in mail peers at you with suspicion.

Yeah. This is the sort of thing I'm aiming at myself, although the mud is
basically RlP. I don't care if players want to RP in depth or not, but I
would prefer for 'in character (IC)' actions to prevail, in this sense,
basically those that fit in - thieves stealing, and such forth.
 
> The interesting thing is that the roll-player generally gets good
> descriptions like this on a MUD, but doesn't usually care. The
> roll-player will walk into either of the rooms above and type 'kill
> goblin'. The role-player will react to the first room either not at all,
> or with some stupid comment like 'Gee, it's dark'. The second room,
> however, will usually spur a role-player to do something like lean
> against the wall and recoil at the wetness, glancing to the ceiling with
> annoyance as he tries to figure out where the water is coming from. If a
> world is logically inconsistent, the pure roll-player doesn't really
> care. He just wants to find where things are and kill them.

I do agree with the overall sentiment though. The game is also a lot more
fun if theres more to it than running about finding what to hit next,
unless you have really really mindless players.

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Fishing is complete and utter madness."  -Spike Milligan