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

[Adam Wiggins]

[Chris L:]
>    at 09:38 AM, Adam Wiggins <nightfall at inficad.com> said:
> >Case in point: Chris L is designing what could be classified as the
> >most powergame-y mud ever, but I don't see a lack of flexibilty and
> >creative ways to do things *there*.  In fact, I see more than any mud
> >I've ever played, role-play or not.
> 
> Thanks.  
> <blush>
> While I've never really though of myself as a powergamer (and still
> largely don't), this discussion has had the effect of showing me very
> clearly that one of my main interests in MUDs are the powergamer
> structures.  I actually really like the powergamer environment, just
> not the powergamer mode of play.  (How to seperate them?) That and I
> *really* like to do things in very elegant non-instantly obvious ways. 

Well, there's a couple things here.  First of all, I think you're
basically dealing with two different deffinitions of powergamer.
One (the one you, and most, want to avoid) is the power-grubbing player who
has only interest in things that advance their character and allow them to
show their superioirty over other players.  The other is the kind of player
that I am, and imagine you are, and that most 'powergamers' I've know
qualify as.  That is, you want to make your character be the best they
can be, but not in a sort of tunnel visioned climb to the top.  I think
the primary difference is that the first type is interested ONLY in reaching
the top.  The second type realizes that the *fun* is the climb to the top,
and doesn't really care whether they reach it or not.
Powergaming is resource managment, strategy, tactics (usually combat-related).
Resources consist of more than just power items.  In fact, I'd say that
the most 'powerful' resources, in order of power are:

1) Knowledge.
2) Friends.
3) Time.
4) Your character.
5) Money and objects.

It constantly cracks me up the way that newbies think that all they need
to be one of the 'top' players are a bunch of nice items and some exp.
There are inevitably players like this (got given these things by their
friends) and they are refered to as 'high-level newbies'.  They are every
bit as 'powerful' as any other player, in the technical definition of the
word, but no real player would want to group with them, because they don't
know what they're doing.

> Part of my concentration is to take about fifteen steps back and look
> at MUDs in a whole new unit of time.  Look at them afresh without
> trying to force them into the AD&D mold, or any other pre-cast model
> dredged up from some weary past, or even to make them like any other
> game I have ever seen, played, or thought of before.  MUDs are, or can
> be, a unique beast, creating a new form of game with no real parallels
> in the papre and pencil, RP, medieveal or whatever genre.  I'd like to
> take advantage of that.

Yeah.  All genre classification aside, I'm constantly amazed at how
limited most new muds continue to be.  I realize it's a big project to
try to do something completely different, and that people don't take to
new things too well.  Still, there is *so much* that could be done.  It
practically makes my spine tingle just to think about it.

> What is it that MUDs can really do well?  They can't automate social
> dynamics worth a rats arse.  They can number crunch very well.  They
> can automate simple systems very well.  They can represent incredible
> complexity by the interaction of simple systems very well.  They can
> model bizarre illogics.  They can handle parallel processing of simple
> programs very well.  They can represent simplistic forms of complex
> object heirarchies very well.  They can  represent object heirearchy
> interactions very well.  Etc etc etc etc.
> I *like* these things.

Ayup.  My personal favorite is: They can remember a billion little details
that no number of human DMs could ever keep track of.  (Well, actually,
my personal favorite would be that they never say, "Not tonight guys.
I work early tomorrow morning.")