[MUD-Dev] Re: Marion's Tailor Problem

[Matthew R. Sheahan]

i had the most simple yet amazing brainstorm on this topic last night.

while i find many of the sentiments from the pro-tailor camp to be terribly
pollyanna, i too am concerned with the Tailor Problem.  ideally i want to
have a game where combat is something anyone with a brain avoids, and where
slaughter for its own sake is something only a very few deviants enjoy, as
opposed to the typical MUD setting which induces everyone to play a crazed
serial killer because that's how you get ahead.  this means there have to be
lots of things for people to do besides fight.  that in turn opens up the
opportunity for people who specialize in fighting to get their jollies by
ruining someone else's day, which is the entire problem.

on Lost Souls right now, we have a fairly asinine set of PK regulations
which are intended to restrict this behavior, and after some policy reforms
they largely succeed.  however, they've grown to be ridiculously detailed
in the process and still invite rules-lawyering despite explicit disclaimers
otherwise, and just by the fact that they're rules that aren't enforced (or
enforcible) in code, they put all developers in the involuntary position of
babysitting the MUD.

and of course babysitting the MUD is very difficult, unsatisfying, and often
ineffectual, because we have these rules and standards of conduct which we
feel as if we ought to abide by, but which often keep us from doing what we
think would be most effective in keeping obnoxious behavior in check.

now, a quick aside: one of the things we have in real life that keeps
obnoxious behavior in check, besides the real dangers of dying, are these
things called moral codes.  these really do help in keeping a lot of people
from messing with others.  and when we as developers feel that the rules are
restraining us from doing what's effective, what we really want is to be
able to enforce our personal moral code, not the rules.

but if we enforced our personal moral codes, we would open ourselves to
accusations of being capricious, inconstant, petty, and so forth; and that's
because we probably would be.

so HMM now.  what sort of thing can you think of that's capricious, inconstant,
petty, and has the power and motivation to enforce its personal moral code?

that's right, a god.  i think a very viable solution to a lot of social
engineering problems is in-character staff control of gods.

i do not think that staff should BE gods in their personal incarnations.
i've never seen that as anything but a mistake.  you petition a developer
for a bug fix out of character; you petition a god for intervention in
character; and there had better always be a separation between the two.
what i'm talking about is where developers ASSUME CONTROL of the god in the
game context.  (in principle this means it can be passed around between
people; in practice you might want to let people stick to a given god.  then
again you might not.)  in-character as the god, proceed to socially engineer
to your heart's content.  if someone's an obvious troublemaker, you don't
have to wait for them to violate "enough" rules; censure them, curse them,
declare them an enemy of the faith, turn them into a frog.  whatever you do
could hardly be less capricious or more unjust than the behavior traditionally
attributed to deities.  though the fact that these are developers running
the gods should be used to make sure divine behavior serves the ends of the
MUD at large.

so what about the moral codes enforced by evil gods?  divvy up the world
geographically according to the spheres of influence of the various gods.
if you want to be safe, stick to where a benevolent deity holds sway.  no
problem.

i consider this a potential solution to the Tailor Problem because i do not
think the solution lies in controlling the game potentialities which allow
the tailor to be disturbed, but in controlling the people who would do the
disturbing.  it doesn't mean that the tailor would be absolutely safe; if
anyone requires that they can play a MUD with no combat system.  but it could
be used to make sure that tailor-disturbing behavior is a survival liability,
and that's what matters in directing player and player-base evolution.

so, whatcha think?

								chiaroscuro