[MUD-Dev] PK again (was: Character evolution)

[Marian Griffith]

On Thu 18 Sep, Maddy wrote:

> Previously, Marian Griffith wrote....

> > In my thinking PK is not a problem with abilities but with mentality.
> > That means the prevention should be handled through administration
> > rather than through the code. A game mechanic that makes fighting
> > other players dangerous is not going to deter unstable or plain
> > obnoxious players.

> The easiest solution I can think of, is to just make it almost impossible
> for this type of person to work out who are other players.  If they can't
> get a list of who is on, then how can they know that Bubba is a player and
> hence that they'd want to kill him?

I guess that would work,  but then I also enjoy talking to other players.
If I can't tell who actually is a player that's not going to be much fun.
Of course I am aware that this is a somewhat obscure position  and that I
should find games where this is a main part of the action.

> > That will prevent the mild cases. But the truly obnoxious (insert your
> > favourite expletive) player is going to just write off a character and
> > create a new one. Short of sitebanning nothing is going to stop those.

> The problem with sitebanning them, is that
> a) it's probably what they want - I've seen people who have wanted to get
> their site banned from muds & talkers, because they don't like other people
> at their site using them.

I guess this proves that you can not win from the jerk. On the other hand
I have every faith that the smart guys on this list can manage to come up
with a better solution than site banning :)

> b) how do you determine if Boffo the player killer, is really just a jerk
> and is killing people to piss them off, or whether he's just playing an evil
> character.

In my opinion  any player who believes that playing an evil character (on a
roleplaying game) means killing indiscriminately deserves to be banned from
the game. That is such a display of bad roleplaying that they should not be
allowed to play the game at all.

> I personally have nothing against somneone wandering about killing players
> by the truckload, but then I'm planning on removing the distinction between
> players and NPCs and so it's just more likely that they'll actually be
> killing NPCs.

Well, I do have a lot against someone killing other players just because
he can. I am not going to discuss that topic any more, it's been done to
dead several times during the short time I was on this list.

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey