[MUD-Dev] The reality of constant combat??

[Jeff Kesselman]

At 09:32 PM 6/3/97 PST8PDT, you wrote:
>You misunderstand or maybe I misunderstand what you were asking.  In Sparta
>and in Germanic tribes it was organized.  Murder was a crime.  What I 
>described was not considered murder since it was in context of societal
>laws written or unwritten.  

Okay, my point was just that societies wherin the ONLY solution to conflict
amogn the members is serious violence don't tend to survive long as
societies. I was asking for an exampel wehre this wasn't true.  So far it
seems like Im safe in my supposition ;)

>
>I see nothing new or unusual with reference to the LA gangs.  The Greeks
>make frequent references to open gang warfare and anarchy.  In Plato's

The issue with South Central LA is why the society has reached the point
where every youth is an a potentailly murderous gang, noone feels safe as
an individual, and youths are shot and killed daily (and yes I mean one or
more a day) on the city streets.

The conclusion that has been reached is that a primary cause is the total
lack of coping mechanisms for dealign with conflict.  These kids literally
know NO other response to conflict then violence.  When taught the skills
they generally end up preferring talking out problems then shooting at each
other (an intellegent chocie in re self-preservation.)

I have seen the same thing on-line. Players going afgter each other in
Pkillign simply because there was a minor disagreement and they knew no
other way to resolve it.  Ive seen it in fact far mroe often then I would
have liekd to believe.  MANY modern Americans lack coping skills.  What
keeps them in lien it seems is only fear of a larger beast. When freed of
that fear they don't know how to build their own reasonable society.  This
is my observation, take it or leave it.


>> >You can't assume that justice or fairness will be perceived the same
>> >way by any player.  Some will gravitate toward Sparta, some Athens.
>> 
>> In afct i have this in my current world for my current project. the
>> differnce between yo uand I is I EXPECT Raam, the city without any laws or
>> law structure, to be like south central LA on a bad day. 
>
>Maybe this is the misunderstanding.  Cities do not exist for long in a
>state of anarchy.  A power vacuum will always be filled by some group and
>the will implement or force a government.  The form and the effectiveness
>of such a government will and can be highly variable.  If the government 
>is ineffective, areas like you describe below will occur.

When such government is based totally on force, they tend to destabilize as
soonas someone else gets close to the same amount of physical power.  In a
game designed to be "fair" there will always be many such groups warring
for control, yes?

JK