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

[Maddy]

Previously, Marian Griffith wrote....
> On Wed 17 Sep, Matt Chatterley wrote:
> > 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.
> 
> 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?

> > 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).
> 
> 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.
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.

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.

Maddy