[MUD-Dev] Re: Affordances and social method

[cat]

S. Patrick Gallaty wrote:

> To clarify, the question that I was responding to was
> "Doesn't anyone provide a 'safer' environment?" to wit I responded
> that Dr. Cat does the extreme of 'safer' meaning completely
> non-competitive.  I don't use the term 'violent' because the basis
> of these games is not violence it is competition.

For the record, Furcadia isn't a non-competitive environment.
People just compete in a different way, for different goals.  It
bothers me that the head of one of the most popular guilds 
feels a bit too competitive with our largest current guild, and
sometimes acts a bit jealous or harsh towards the person
running that other one.

I certainly expect the influence points system to engender
more of that sort of competitiveness though, and hope it will
prove to be a positive factor more often than a negative one.
We're definitely going to have "high score" type lists to go
with it, and I'm sure some people will feel competitive about
rising higher on those lists - which hopefully will translate
into more usage and more money in our pockets in the long
run.  :X)

> I think Dr. Cat knows better than to think that I personally am stuck 
in any
> sort of ostrich-hood.  I do think that his point about this list being
> primarily composed of competitive game designers is completely
> correct, but that doesn't make him unwelcomed I would hope.

Unwelcomed by the list isn't an issue, and my apologies if I gave
that impression.  It's more a question of interestingness.  A convention
of people in some line of work I'm not in might be willing to welcome me
with open arms and tell me all about what they do, but if I don't happen
to be interested in that field I probably shouldn't go there.

I suppose today is just my day off work or something.  :X)

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