[MUD-Dev] Introductions and

[Brandon J. Rickman]

On Sun, 23 Nov 1997, Mike Sellers <mike at online-alchemy.com> said:
>I would be VERY careful about doing anything that rips away the user's
>control of their character.  This is probably one of the fastest ways to
>lose players permanently.

Bah!  How come so many control freaks are building muds?  And are they the
same people that want realistic worlds, with growing grass and gravity and
birds that shit?

Go play some pinball.  How much control does the player have over the 
ball (the character)?  The most stimulating thing about pinball is that 
no matter how good you get, how much you can control the ball, if you
try to overcontrol it the more likely the game will do something
unpredictable.

For me, the gap between my control of a character and the unknown/
uncontrollable nature of the game is a high point.  For example: 
I'm trying to gain a chracter level so I go fight a really tough monster.
I win the battle, but my character is horribly wounded and I'm still
10 points away from the level, so I decide to go kill a wimpy little
rabbit for those 10 points.  But I'm forced to flee because the rabbit
got a critical hit on me, I'm trapped in a room with one exit (back to
the rabbit) and I have to sit and heal the slow way.  

If you don't understand the joy of this I won't bother to discuss it
any futher.

- Brandon Rickman - ashes at zennet.com -
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