[MUD-Dev] Introductions and

[Mike Sellers]

At 04:45 PM 11/23/97 PST8PDT, Brandon J. Rickman wrote:
>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?

I'm not sure how you get from what I said to me being a control freak.  I'm
speaking only from experience -- both in gaming and professionally (in
designing user interfaces, "user control" is a big priority, and in games
similar issues arise).  Of course, the people you attract to your games may
differ, I don't know.  I feel fairly safe in saying, though, that most
people would become quickly become frustrated enough with a situation like
the one proposed that they could easily stop playing.  

>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.

This is actually an interesting topic (mostly handled in another thread
right now, I believe).  I think RPGs where you are one step removed from
the characters might be very interesting.  I actually have a short spec for
a game where you have to attract the characters, keep them in a group, and
keep them ready for action.  Dwarves, for example, are great in battle and
can smell gold -- but they sometimes tend to spend it on ale instantly upon
returning to town, rather than saving for that nifty armor.  A drunk Dwarf
is not of much use to your party either, so you as the player would have to
find ways to encourage him not to turn all his money into beer.  Anyway,
this arms-length relationship might be interesting in a different sort of
game, but typically people in an RPG invest enough of themselves into their
character that they can quickly become frustrated (even offended) if they
believe that their control over the character's actions or beliefs has been
usurped.  


Mike Sellers                                    Chief Alchemist
mike at online-alchemy.com                         Online Alchemy              

        Combining art & science to create new worlds.