[MUD-Dev] Re: Affordances and social method (Was: Re: Wired Magazine...)

[Marian Griffith]

> On Tue, 7 Jul 1998, Marian Griffith wrote:

> > > >The strange thing then is that so few people, on this list only Dr.Cat
> > > >that I know of, attempt to create a safer game environment, at the ex-
> > > >pense of some freedom of the players. Or am I being overly pessimistic
> > > >now?

> > > The perservering abusive player always seems to find a new and
> > > annoying way to disrupt the game for other players through cheating,
> > > 'pkilling', abusive interpersonal behaviour etc.

I have been thinking about this a bit and came up with the following idea.
I do not know how well it would work on a larger scale but suppose that a
player must purchase  (through registration, if not necessarily involving
money) a limited number of characters. Death is not permanent, as on most
muds, but to reincarnate a character some bodypart is needed,  and a kind
of community ritual.  With those conditions a player has an infinite num-
ber of lifes  and should not need to invoke the additional characters her
registration entitles her to. If a player ostracises himself from society
however then death is a potentially permanent, and those players may very
quickly run out of characters,  forcing them  to contact the staff again.
And possibly having to explain  how they managed to run out of characters
so quickly. The staff can then grant a new registration or delay that for
any amount of time, or downright deny it.  In any case the players have a
little social control over other players without having to resort to vio-
lence, simply through denial of service.  If you add into the mix  that a
character needs food, clothing, shelter to survive then you also have the
basis of an economy which further strengthens the player society.

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey