[MUD-Dev] You, the game of philosophy.

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

JC Lawrence <claw at under.Eng.Sun.COM> wrote:
>On Sat, 27 Dec 1997 15:49:27 PST8PDT Ola wrote:
>
>> Hey, this is a great idea.  Let the world consist of a fixed set of
>> characters, let people pick up available characters and play them.
>> Let the characters have system controlled instincts that will
>> constrain what they can do to avoid powergaming deaths and exchange
>> of items.  Force the player to read the logs of the character when
>> he picks it up. Logs should be describing everything that has
>> happend since the last time the player played that particular
>> character.
>
>Its definitely a "neat" idea, and very attractive intellectually,
>however I'd have a hard time ever thinking of this as either "fun" or
>a game.

Well, JC, when I talk about muds in general I think about what would
appeal to a larger audience.  When I talk about RPing then I talk
about what I personally would enjoy.  Anyway, the above scenario is
similar to some popular BBS create-a-story-tree games.  That is, you
get a description, then two choices, then another description... When
you reach a leaf you will have to enter your own description and two
actions...  Make the theme "dirty" and lots of users will love it.

I'm not particularly interested in the game part of regular online
games.  The gamepart usually sucks compared to well-crafted singleuser
games.

>The human player has largely been reduced to a
>behind-the-scenes activist, an agitator, attempting to goad his
>character (and thus the game) into doing what he wants or considers
>enjoyable through a very imperfect and imprecise interface.  Rather
>than being "the head" he's now the "little voice in the back of the
>head".

Actually, I don't think so.  It is more a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
thing.  The more you play, the more influence you have over the
character's destiny.  You could also give the dedicated players of a
particular character more control.

>But, getting back to the point, the repertoire is infinite and
>endlessly malleable.

Infinite?  Yeah, if you have an ever-expanding mind and live
forever.. (It is finite formally :^)

Ola.