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

[Matt Chatterley]

On Tue, 16 Sep 1997, Jon A. Lambert wrote:

> On 13 Sep 97 at 20:42, Adam Wiggins wrote:
> >
> > 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?
> 
> Perhaps there is some base principle at work here.  
> 
> As the implementation of realism is increased, the chances and 
> methods of inflicting pain are increased either directly or 
> indirectly.

Vastly so. The more and more realistic you make anything (within any
theme), the more ways you provide for people to be directly and indirectly
injured by others. Wether PK is possible or not - remember these other
'indirect' (or 'consequential') ways of killing, since they are extremely
hard to stamp out. Less so than if you have 'optional' PK, mind you, since
you can usually get away with 'if a player is the root cause.. do not hurt
players' as a universal rule, which, while it may be daft in some
situations, is not as daft as only hurting some players.

Hence my reasoning for not stopping PK in any way shape or form (but then,
it will always be dangerous - a well equipped newbie would be a match for
a moderately experienced by poorly equipped player). Avoid angry mobs if
possible.
 
> As the implementation of realism is reduced, the chances and methods 
> of inflicting pain may be reduced directly or indirectly.

Yup. The inverse seems also true.
 
> > 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. 
> 
> Well not exactly.  It was a unabashed and direct poke at the non-PK 
> crowd.  It just requires a much larger amount of fantasy and 
> suspension of disbelief.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  

A theme whereby you can nuke large areas is inherently poor for a non-PK
environment. Mind you, is there a significant difference between 'Player
kills', 'NPC kills' (either way), and 'Player deaths' and 'NPC deaths'?
 
> It just find the fantasy of it very hard to swallow that when I 
> pull the trigger of my gun two very different things happen depending 
> on whether it's pointing at Bubba the PC or Boffo the NPC.

You pays your money, you takes your choice, basically. I feel similarly,
and want to allow full on PK (I don't actually expect it to happen,
though, since the consequences in a safe area will probably be lethal, and
the result of this removes you from the game for some time - the 'arse'
minded player who likes to chain kill people will have to actually play
after the kill to get back into the game).

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics." -?