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

[J C Lawrence]

On Mon, 13 Jul 1998 11:50:39 -0700 (PDT) 
Adam Wiggins<adam at angel.com> wrote:

> Part of my point, however, was that you don't need death or even
> violence for bullies to cause problems.  As long as there is
> something worthwhile that one character can have, and it is
> transferable, then another character will be able to take it away
> from them without their consent.  You could certainly construct a
> game to minimize this effect, but in the end I'm not sure that
> Marian's desire to have a jerk-free game which still contains basic
> mechanics (so that she can be a tailor) is achievable in any way
> other than being careful who you let play your game.

The underlieing corollary to which is that if you provide any sort of
mechanical or automated recourse aor justice system, it merely
provides yet another weapon for the "jerks" to use to target players
with.

cf Keegan's comments back when on Island's sin system and its abuses
to short circuit game design elements.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
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