[MUD-Dev] Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface)

[Brandon J. Rickman]

On Sun, 2 Nov 1997 15:15:06 PST8PDT,
Marian Griffith <gryphon at iaehv.nl> wrote:
>On Sun 02 Nov, Sauron wrote:
>> why? seriously you either place your character in a "safe room" where
>> they cant be attacked (if the game allows such rooms) or you leave your
>> connection active (their are numerous programs out there that will
>> reconnect for you if you get dumped) and it is not very hard to program
>> a simple script that will run when attacked or respond by saying run a
>> room, hide, when X enters, attack X, run, etc.
>
>You're joking right? I can't afford to leave my computer connected all
>day even if I wanted to. And no, things like those automatic reactions
>may be simple for you but I wouldn't know how to begin. Not to mention
>that I have no interest in finding out because I do not enjoy the type
>of game it implies.

I agree in a way with Marian, of what interest is it to _me_ if my 
character is active without my direct control?  Sure, it's troublesome
when unconnected players are "invulnerable" (depending on the 
circumstances of their last disconnect), but there could be some
creative solutions to this:

Shoehorn is a criminal.  He is constantly being hunted by the
authorities.  One day Shoehorn is walking down the street when his
connection goes dead.  Considering that Shoehorn is a criminal he is
taking risks every time he connects to the mud, but to not connect
means retiring the character.  Walking down the street was a risk,
and whatever the cause of the disconnect the authorities now have a
chance to catch Shoehorn.  If Shoehorn doesn't reconnect immediately
he will be put in jail (which in a sense is a "safe room") until
he reconnects when he'll have to resolve this new situation
(perhaps he can get released due to improper arrest).  But if he
does reconnect immediately he risks a physical fight where he might
get killed.

The point of this is when you are playing the game you should be
on the edge of your seat (danger at every turn, if you don't know that
expression), but when you aren't playing *you aren't playing.*
Screw the "unrealistic" or inconsistent consequences, the game is
there for me to enjoy on an immediate level.

Boffo might spend hours staking out Shoehorn's house, waiting for
him to connect.  If Shoehorn logs in he is suddenly confronted by
Boffo, but otherwise Shoehorn isn't home.  If Boffo gets bored and
logs off, he misses his chance to catch Shoehorn.  There are 
real geographic problems here, if Shoehorn is in Los Angeles and
Boffo is in a time zone twelve hours away they may never connect,
but no one is guaranteed the chance to interact with every other
character anyway.

Here's a crazy thought: a mud is like a gym.  Some people go to the
gym in the morning, some in the afternoon, some in the evening.
Each crowd tends to have some common characteristics (the morning
people are salarymen working out before work, students in the 
afternoon, singles in the evening) but there are always exceptions.
Most people go to the gym just to improve their stats.  But whatever
competition occurs between people has to happen simultaneously.

Hm, I seem to have strayed a bit from the original subject.  Make
that a four dimensional gym, a three dimensional world that exists
"inside" the gym and the fourth where the players step in and
out through time.

You may now continue with your normal activities.

- Brandon Rickman - ashes at zennet.com -
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