[MUD-Dev] Marian's Tailor Problem

[Koster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dr. Cat [mailto:cat at bga.com]
> Sent: Friday, August 14, 1998 4:54 PM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: [MUD-Dev] Missing MUD-Dev post (fwd)
> 
> 
> I don't have much to say about this, other than I think you're
> probably right.  If nobody has any desire to solve the Marian's Taylor
> Problem in a way that's emotionally satisfying to tailors, as opposed
> to a way that's emotional satisfying to warriors, then I don't think
> you're ever going to get much in the way of active discussion about
> MUSH-style approaches to roleplaying issues here.

I'd love to solve Marian's Tailor Problem (a new scenario to match
Dragon's Dinner?). The problem is that it is couched right now in terms
of a game that ALSO supports combat. In a game that doesn't, it's not a
dilemma so much as it is a lesser administrative problem--still one
worth talking about, but not nearly as daunting. So far the solutions I
have seen just about all involve changing the context. So let's frame
the difficulty:

In a setting which supports violence via a number of direct and indirect
means, how do you let the non-violent players play without being
impinged upon by violence? And harder, how do you do it without human
intervention?

Clearly, if you remove the "supports violence" bit, the difficulty just
about all goes away.

FWIW, I am just happy that in UO we got to the point where this dilemma
actually even occurs. After all, if you think back on previous muds,
there aren't very many where the modes of non-violent play were robust
enough that this became an issue. The dilemma happens precisely because
two very different modes of play are supported to large degrees. Most
gaming muds haven't had enough non-violent activities to make it happen,
and most social environments have omitted violence. (Most muds are
pretty one-note...)

-Raph