[MUD-Dev] A flamewar startingpoint.

[Derrick Jones]

On Tue, 11 Nov 1997, Brandon Cline wrote:

> On Mon, 10 Nov 1997, Chris Gray wrote:
> 
> > [Brandon C:]
> > :> [Me:]
> > :> I think I would not be bothered by such things as long as they didn't
> > :> bother me! There needn't be a point - it can all be "atmosphere". However,
> > :> if I have to spend a minute or two every time my character needs to eat,
> > :> then I *will* become bothered.
> > :
> > :In a mud environment though isn't it true that in order to create
> > :"atomosphere" you need these details?	 Or should players be expected to
> > :"emote" everything the designer decides is too tedious to implement?
> > 
> > Having a tedious requirement to 'eat food' is not hard to implement - it
> > would probably take an afternoon to add. I'm all for having atmosphere in
> > a game, but there are lots of players (often including me), that don't care
> > to spend a lot of time doing things that don't move my character forward.
> > 
> > I wonder if it is feasible to have a "detail switch" in a game. Players
> > who want to go through the motions would turn it on, and so would have to
> > choose and buy food & supplies, and use them periodically as appropriate.
> > Other players could turn it off, and just have a small steady drain from
> > a "food counter", and would automatically stock up when they go into a
> > store. The former player would have to 'eat food' (or something possibly
> > a lot more detailed involving setting up camp, taking out utensils, filling
> > a pan with water, building a fire, choosing what to cook, paying attention
> > to the cooking, eating the result, washing the pan, putting things away,
> > etc.), while the latter would only have to occasionally check their
> > "food count" to make sure it doesn't get too low.
> > 
> 
> Like you were saying, some way
> of having a detail level for player actions...  So say on the eat food
> thing, you shouldn't be required to eat food every few minutes etc, and
> obtaining, cooking, and consuming food should be allowed to be regulated
> to low detail "unless" the player sees need in which he would want to do
> it himself, does that make sense?  There should also be a way to convey
> that all the above detail is assumed, so that people don't feel like their
> characters go on without just because they don't have to, but they go on
> not visiably eating because it is assumed that when they are hungry they
> eat and it is just not shown... or shown in very low detail.  
> 
This is of course assuming that food is relatively easy to come by.  If
not, then even with detail switched off, players wuold have to scavenge
for food periodically to prevent their food count from dropping too low.
Maybe, you could assume that low detail players are scavenging as they go
along, not particularly careful about the quality of the food they find...
Perhaps keeping the characters 'food count' in the same way I always did
in Pen & Paper RPGs:  Make the players stock up on some food (normaly some
standard rations of some sort), give them the encumbrance of carrying the
food, then just keeping track of how much food they have left, with
periodic testing to see if the food has gone bad.

Of course, players who actively keep track of little details like food
would be more likely to notice that some meat has spoiled before they eat
it, and are more likely to get higher quality products (i.e. knocking on
melons etc) which may give them a small pleasant side affect (characters
that watch what they eat would generally be healthier than those stopping
by the local Rations-R-Us.)

I wonder what other actions could generally be concidered 'details' with
which players shouldn't be bothered...
	drinking
	taxes (actually prompted to pay or auto-pay)
These seem to fall under the same catagory as eating...left up to the
player, with a (small) benifit for being meticulous...
	sleeping
	changing (clothes)
	house maintainence (normal)
I've always thought is was odd that characters never had to sleep on any
of the muds I've played.  I can't imagine making it playable (1/3 of the
time you'd be sitting there watching the insides of your eyelids). I guess
its just an area where realism/playability clash.  The other two are
things that no one ever does on MUDs...mostly because they fall into the
'not that important' catagory.