[MUD-Dev] Life

[Marian Griffith]

On Sun 01 Jun, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> On Sun, 1 Jun 1997 09:39:00 PST8PDT, Adam Wiggins
> <nightfall at inficad.com> wrote:

> >If I kill you within the context of the game and you take it personally,
> >than YOU are not playing the game correctly.

> 'Within the context of the game' is the key there. Let me give you an
> example. A player I know decided it might be cool to play a six year
> old. Just a regular everyday six year old. She was having great fun with
> it for about six months; it opened a lot of RP possibilities for herself
> and others.

> The problem is, she ran into a character whose character background and
> concept indicated that he was a child molester. Entirely in keeping with
> his character, he kidnapped, molested, and killed her character. Just
> because she was a child. He managed to get into the same area with her
> on a deserted street, and called a staff member saying he was kidnapping
> the child by knocking her over the head. He then simply dragged her off
> and said 'Okay, I'm basically going to kill you, and there's nothing you
> can do about it'. This was true. Logically, she had no options. He was
> rather expert at it, after all. But the player -- in fact, a LOT of
> players -- were up in arms about this. His argument was that this is
> what his character would do. The staff supported this by saying that
> unfortunately, he was completely in character and completely justified
> within his character concept and the abilities available to him. 
> 
> Now, the question that I have is, was that really fair? Did she have a
> right to be upset? I certainly think she did. My argument is that he
> should NOT have killed the character; his argument was that she could
> have identified him. This is true. However, why in a world theoretically
> full of children that are NOT being played by participants in the game
> did he have to do this to a player character? Should the player just go
> 'oh well' about the loss of a character she had played for six months,
> just because she happened to run into someone who could come up with an
> excuse to off her? 

What was really wrong of this player's part is that he involved another
player in a plot  without in the least attempting to figure out how she
felt about the whole situation. This is where a roleplaying game should
still be a -game-. All involved must have fun. While it may be in-char-
acter it wasn't much fun for the victim. This is why many rp games have
a warning against developing plotlines that may seriously harm the cha-
racters of other players without them basically agreeing to the plot.

> >Now, I'm a human being.  Human beings are fond of conflict.  In most
> >cases, we consider situations where everything is hunky-dory to be downright
> >boring.  We like challanges, which is why we do pretty much everything we
> >do, including playing games.  

> Where's the challenge in conking a six-year-old over the head and
> killing her?

This is an unfair comparison. I'm sure that Adam hadn't something like
this in mind when he mentioned  challenge and conflict.  Besides he is
right that even a totally non-combat rp game still revolves round con-
flicts. Even if the conflict is planned ahead by the parties involved.

> It certainly didn't make his life any easier. Those of us
> with powers beyond the human norm hunted him down and killed him. We
> left no trace. Not even a body. We didn't even give him a chance to do
> much; under the same situation, something around a dozen of us hustled
> him into an alley. One of us put him to sleep, and then we called staff
> and said we were taking him to my basement.

This was, in its own way, equally unjustified as this player's original
act was.  While it may have put his perception of what he'd done to the
other player into better perspective,  it still comes down to doing the
same to him what you blamed him for doing in the first place.

> The major difference was that he had done something to deserve it.

I've been thinking hard about this topic  and have come to the con-
clusion that  I don't belief this justice should be drawn out. If a
player does something grossly unacceptable  then his character must
be deleted. I know from personal experience that watching your tor-
mentor suffer is satisfying but it left a bad taste all the same.

Marian, who doesn't like the gloomy turn the discussion seems to
have taken in several of the threads.
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey