[MUD-Dev] Character development [was Re: ]

[J C Lawrence]

On Thu, 9 Apr 1998 19:40:32 PST8PDT 
Travis Casey<efindel at polaris.net> wrote:

> Well, I think we all know what a traditional mud guild is --
> basically a D&D-style class that characters may join after starting
> the game, and has the option of leaving.

> Now, what *should* a guild be... that's another question.  :-)

There is a more fundamental question that I raised the last time this 
area came up:

  What problem in the game-universe is the guild an attempted solution 
for?

Turning this around: 

  If there were no guilds, but everything else in the game was the
same, would the players form "guilds" even without any server or
hardcoded support?  If so, why?  What survival threat in the
game-world would the players be attempting to mitigate or prevent via
guilds?

Once you have the answer to that question you can approach designing
your guilds in a way that is both acutally useful in your gameworld
and doesn't have logical inconsistencies with the rest of the game
world.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                               Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------(*)                     Internet: claw at under.engr.sgi.com
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...