[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun

[Koster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	CJones at aagis.com [SMTP:CJones at aagis.com]
> Sent:	Tuesday, July 07, 1998 12:44 PM
> To:	mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject:	[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun
> 
> In short, good, neutral, and evil are tags applied to how your
> character is role-played. Pkill and not-pkill are flags applied 
> to your character by a responsible player or administrator. This 
> implies putting power into the hands of the players to dispense 
> a form of justice. What the community then does with the 
> player-killer is up to the whole, not the whim of the 
> administrator.
> 
> MUD societies work to a point, as in the case of LambdaMOO. Someone
> eventually needs to be responsible that things get done, but with
> the proper mechanisms in place, players can dispense much justice
> and only rely on the administrators when something needs to be done
> that requires permissions or privileges.
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
Just for the record, UO does in fact now have good-vs-evil distinct from
pkillers. However, we don't have players judging those "gray cases"
simply because the manpower load is way way way too high. So we coded in
some recognition of the concept of "self-defense" that your wife notes,
and we made it a five kill buffer zone, and now very few people cross
the line into "pkiller" accidentally. (Instead, what happens is that a
killer tricks them into being the aggressor, so his murder is allowed
under "self-defense" rules... ah well, no system is perfect...) We rely
on the administrators now only for cases of harassment, which I don't
think code is ever gonna be able to judge.

-Raph, who is mourning Dani Berry :(