[MUD-Dev] Life

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On Mon, 2 Jun 1997 22:16:09 PST8PDT, clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

>Disagreed.  I've seen this more than once (Island is a perfect case in
>point, as is Sneezy, Northern Lights, LambdaMOO, and the recent
>Habitat posts).  Remove the game and the game system entirely from the
>social engineering.  Let the players build their own structures should
>they wish to.  don't enforce it.  Don't attempt to structure it. 
>They'll do a much better job than you could.  Best case: try and to
>channel and guide it.

I completely agree with this... but if you encourage the players to kill
each other with impunity, it places a lot of emphasis on just the matter
of survival. I would question whether any really useful social structure
is likely to develop; the structure most likely to evolve is something
more similar to roving bands of thugs than any kind of real society. You
can't really concern yourself with societal development when you're busy
just trying to stay alive. 

-+[caliban at darklock.com]+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
 I am here to grind your eyes harder into the miasmic bile of life; to 
 show you the truth and the beauty in the whisper of steel on silk and 
 the crimson scent of blood as it rises to meet the caress of a blade. 
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+[http://www.darklock.com/]+-