[MUD-Dev] Marian's Tailor Problem

[Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt]

On Fri, 14 Aug 1998, Koster, Raph wrote:
> [...] The problem is that it is couched right now in terms
> of a game that ALSO supports combat.=20
> [...]
> In a setting which supports violence via a number of direct and indirec=
t
> 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?

The real problem in the setup, is the lack of what we understand by
society and values. For tailors to exist, it requires a social
context. The way many combat-oriented games are set up, the social
context is missing for this activity. In reality such games does not
as much mirror mideval times, as much as a caveman free-for-all fight.

If society does value life and lifestyle enough, and decides to protect
it, as well as the people that help hold up the society wich they value,=20
(such as tailors,farmers etc). In such a setup the tailors are not=20
required to take up the profession of warrior (maybe except in VERY
extreme situations, like under a siege), and it is in the interrest of th=
e=20
community that they do their job, ans so makes society function, and does
not waste time learning the finer techniques of handling a sword.

Problem with most online mideval style games today is that 'everyone'=20
wants to be the knight in shining armor, or the warlike magician, which i=
n
turn creates a social context where 80% of everyone is a person with a=20
violent profession. Such a distribution naturally will reflect itself upo=
n
the social context of the game. The violent world that Marians tailor see=
s
is simply a product of a world build by violence, not society.

If you want the game to mirror a society, you would have to make the
players face the real concequences of their actions. If the farmers are
killed, they would have to pick up farming, or probably die of starvation.
If the tailor is killed, they'll be walking around in rags in a few
months, etc etc. Swordmanship would not be the most required skill, rathe=
r
would hunting probably be a more practical approach to survival.

In short the typical violent online gaming is only possible because the
game itself ENSURES the social and resource context that the warlike
players thrive in, constantly providing them with food and clothes at
their leasure. You need to shift the factors that dictate survival from
confrontational combat to more mundane skills.=20

The big question is then: How do you do that without the game becoming
tedious and boring?


Hans Henrik St=E6rfeldt         | =20
email: bombman at diku.dk        |  voice:      +45 40383492=20
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  40383492 at sms.tdm.dk         |       Hans Henrik St=E6rfeldt,
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                              |
Student of Computer Science   | Scientific programmer at Center for
  and Information Psychology. |   Biological Sequence Analysis,
  at University of Copenhagen |   Technical University of Denmark.