[MUD-Dev] Rumours

[Shawn Halpenny]

Marian Griffith wrote:

> [ Adam Wiggins: ]
> I don't think so.  At least not entirely.  If you know that John is honest
> you will most likely dismiss the rumour about him.  But if the person that
> told you the rumour is really believable then you will and you will adjust
> your opinion about him to become very negative. People like to believe bad
> things about respected people.
> On the other hand if you dismiss the rumour you may for a short time doubt
> that John is entirely respectable. But this trust will be restored after a
> short period of time (the next day, or even in an hour).  If you do it any
> other way it would be even easier to launch a slurr campaign against some-
> body.
> 
> > If you already knew him to be somewhat of a shady guy,
> > then you'll end up just thinking "Oh, well that confirms it" and your
> > opinion of him drops quite a bit.  Plus, as you said, your own scepticism
> > and your belief about the reliability of the gossip.
> 
> Since you already have a poor impression of him then you are not particu-
> larly surprised about the rumour so it actually will affect your attitude
> towards him only very slightly.
> 
> The big question now of course is: does somebody on the list belief this
> is feasible and will attempt to adopt it in his game?

I think it is feasible that some rudimentary false rumors could be
started using ideas presented thus far.  Would it be as grand as
everyone would like it
to be?  I have my doubts, since the NPCs have no idea at all about the
actual
substance of the rumor.  In any case, it's something I want to explore,
so I will attempt to adopt it--and the todo list grows longer...

I will not, however, attempt to force the characters into accepting what
the
system says about liking and disliking a person based on the rumors
heard.  The decision to accept the substance of any rumor will rest
solely with the person hearing it.  There won't be any hidden stat
associated with someone, e.g. you
heard a nasty rumor about John so the system decides that next time you
interact with John, the parameters of that interaction should be
changed.  I believe if one uses an approach like that, then the entire
point of false rumors is moot--why have a false rumor if the decision to
believe/disbelieve it does not ultimately fall to the player?

It's not that I think that's what you were saying above, but I'm just
clearly stating that I think such issues are up to the players.
--
Shawn Halpenny

"You can't buy the necessities of life with cookies"
                                    - "Edward Scissorhands"