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

[Adam Wiggins]

On Sat, 11 Jul 1998, Chris Gray wrote:
> [Adam Wiggins:]
> 
> [ToonMUD]
> 
>  >Of course, this would probably be completely unsatisfying to the
>  >achievers.  I would say that typically this sort of play is rewarding only
>  >if the advancement achieved in-game has a chance of being lost, through
>  >death or more subtle means.  And if it's possible to take something of
>  >value away from other players, then bullies become a problem again.
> 
> You could still achieve on such a MUD. Just not by killing people. Status
> could be based on a lot of things, just like it is in real life. The
> toons in "Roger Rabbit" had most of the same concerns that the real
> humans did - just no fears for physical safety (well, other than the
> spray cans of ink remover).

Agreed, up to a point.  I still think such a thing is a worthwhile
endevour for someone interested in getting away from traditional
game violence/gore.

Part of my point, however, was that you don't need death or even violence
for bullies to cause problems.  As long as there is something worthwhile
that one character can have, and it is transferable, then another
character will be able to take it away from them without their consent.
You could certainly construct a game to minimize this effect, but in the
end I'm not sure that Marian's desire to have a jerk-free game which still
contains basic mechanics (so that she can be a tailor) is achievable in
any way other than being careful who you let play your game.

As someone asked, "How does this list manage to stay violence free?"  The
answer is that it is invitation-only, and at its core a dictatorship.
This keeps quality up, but number of players low (have we ever had more
than about 20 active posters at any given time?).  I think most here would
agree with me that this is a desirable effect; you could do a mud the very
same way as long as you didn't mind spending a lot of energy on it and
after four years only having 20 active players. :)

Adam