[MUD-Dev] A place of my own

[Koster]

On Thursday, September 25, 1997 6:06 AM, Jon A. 
Lambert[SMTP:jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com] wrote:
> On 25 Sep 97 at 8:12, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> >
> > Usually because people have no reason to go home. There's nothing 
there. I
> > for one think there's a BIG need for people to have their own 
space in a
> > game...
> I think this topic deserves it's own little time in the sun.
> I am highly interested in this aspect of virtual worlds and I 
suspect
> that there may be many others.  So off the top-of-me-head a few
> questions:
>
> Should players have houses, castles, furniture, hirelings, etc.?

I agree with Caliban--it makes a huge difference to prpvide this sort 
of thing, though the difference it makes may seema subtle one. It 
essentially encourages "putting down roots" in a virtual space, 
feeling as though a definite concrete and permanent contribution has 
been made. This encourages community-building, in other words.

> How does one go about obtaining this good stuff?

Buy it, build it? One odd thing is that in general, we tend to work 
with complex systems. Therefor building with any sort of reasonable 
interface fo the general public is often right out. Yet "assisted 
building" is an administrative nightmare fraught with overhead and 
manpower needs. So I lean towards buying prefab shapes. :)

> Can it be built by the player, purchased, rented, designed?
>
> What security mechanisms can a player place in his own space?

Assuming you have decent game architecture, just about anything you 
can support in your regular game mehcanics, I'd assume. With the 
caveat that again, it needs to be prefab.

> Locks, guards, wards, safes, dungeons, chests, secret passages,
> walls, windows, etc.?

Yep :)

> What can a player keep there, how about a family, spouse, kids,
> brothers, sisters, parents?

You'll find they are likely to keep their "fictional sibs" there even 
ifyou don't want them to. In other words, they will start the process 
of granting entry to friends, which is their virtual community, from 
day one. As soon as we gave UO players the ability to make houses, 
they wanted to be able to make copies of keys for friends.

> How about peasants, slaves and other hirelings?  Livestock anyone?

Why not? Assuming you give them purpose, players will desire them. 
Some will desire them even if they lack purpose. We're working up 
towards allowing players to breed livestock, in UO...

> Does a players property produce stuff or resources?

It could, why not?

> How much maintenance and upkeep is required?

You've gotta require maintenance, because otherwise you'll have the 
abaondoned detritus of a lot of ex-players. :)

-Raph