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

[Adam Wiggins]

> On Sat 13 Sep, Adam Wiggins wrote:
> > I think JC's point was that it's impossible to determine what makes somethin
> > a PK or not.  As most experienced mudders know: if it's possible to die
> > via game mechanics on a mud, it is possible for others to kill you.  Never
> > mind if they can hurt you directly or not; this only rules out 'honorable'
> > methods of attack.
> 
> tion of the attacking player.  What upsets people is unprovoked attack
> not accidental death.  I have been killed on muds through stupidity of
> other players. That didn't matter because it was an accident. And I've

Okay...taking the example further then:

Would you be upset if Bubba nuked a town full of people that you just happened
to be in?
Would you be upset of Bubba nuked an empty stretch of desert for some reason
completely unrelated to harming anyone, but you were accidentally caught
in the blast?
Would you be upset if you thought that the following situation was the
case, but some time later found out that Bubba was actually trying to kill
you all along?

> [slightly convoluted examples snipped]
> 
> I would hesitantly say they are indeed attempts to PK, though the victim
> is unable to tell. I'm not sure if it matters though.

You just said yourself that you don't mind dieing via accidents which involve
other players; those were the situations I was trying to outline.  Ie,
Bubba lays a trap in the forest in order to catch himself a dinner and
you are accidentally hurt or killed by one of the traps.  Are you upset
at Bubba, or not?  Upset enough just to tell him off, or upset enough to
seek the admin to siteban him?

Anyhow...the original post (which was I believe from a new member who
wasn't in on all the old PK threads) was postulating that JC's example about
Bubba nuking a town would have no effect on the players in the town flagged
as no-pk.  The problems with these flags immediately become apparent
as soon as you have any sort of mildly complex and/or consistant world.
Most no-pk muds get around this by having a simple world where the only
way to actually hurt someone is to directly engage them in combat.

This is a valid issue, I'm not just trying to stir up the old PK war again.
Some folks want to play a mud where it is impossible to hurt other players;
is this possible to achieve in any sort of semi-complex or consistant
game world?