[MUD-Dev] Re: Affordances and social method (Was: Re: Wire d Magazine...)

[Marian Griffith]

On Thu 30 Jul, J C Lawrence wrote:

> cat <cat at bga.com> wrote:

> > Instead of the interesting debate on whether or not it is or might
> > be truly "necessary" to strike someone to deal with problems in an
> > environment where combat and fighting aren't built into the code,

Personally I even think it is a questionable response in games that
-do- have combat built in, but perhaps that is just me.

> > the responses from various people drifted right back into the
> > question of whether it is or isn't necessary in an environment that
> > DOES have combat built in, and is in a setting (like medieval
> > fantasy) where combat is normal and expected.  It seems this is the
> > only kind of setting people here really want to talk about.

> It is always easier to deal with familiar ground than foreign.  This
> is no surprise.  If there's a specific point you want discussed you
> need to play thead cop and constantly steer the discussion back to the
> topic of choice.  The natural tendency is for each to tend to his own
> hobby horse.

*grin* which suggests this list is more like the newsgroups than most
are willing to admit...

> > I mean, really - isn't anyone else capable of seeing it as extremist
> > and ludicrous to think of striking people as universally necessary,
> > rather than just necessary in certain specific types of
> > environments?  Besides Marian, that is.

*curtsey*

> Again, there are at least two base viewpoints; the macro and the micro
> vision:

>   The VR service (or whatever collective term you want to apply to it)
> has a basic function.  
>     1) You can look the the service as a collection of individual
> services each of which in its own arena has primacy with the service
> as acting as framework or backdrop for the collected sub-services.
>     2) You can also look at it such that the framework itself has the
> primacy and the component services are lesser-than if not individually
> almost insignificant.
> The contrast is between the VR service as a collection of features
> which happen to be collected (#1), or a world which happens to enclude
> features (#2).  Do you use the VR service to take advantage of
> specific features or venues it offers (eg the Photography SIG), or do
> you use the VR service to manipulate and use the features it provides
> as building blocks or tools?  What is yor focus?  The internal
> feature/social_group/SIG/whatever, or the service/world as a whole and
> your function in it?
> They're not mutually exclusive of course, tho they are often treated
> as such.

I am sorry to ask this, but could you please rephrase this in plain
english (I know asking for plain dutch is a bit too much). I really
tried to understand what you try to say here  but I am afraid I did
not succeed.

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey