[MUD-Dev] User inventions (was:killers have more...)

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

quzah wrote:

> Damion Schubert <zjiria at texas.net> wrote:
> >Because mischief is fun.  A lot of fun.  I don't even feel bad
> >for laughing out loud at watching these events transpire.  As
> >JC alluded to in another post, when you try to break the game,
> >you challenge the GODS, which are not only much more exciting
> >than killing yet another NPC dragon on another NPC mud, but
> >is much more challenging to boot.

(Which is yet another reason to completely remove system-authority from
the surface level of the system)

[excellent example of using "bugs" as "feature" snipped]

> To sum it up, the god wasn't to happy, I'm not sure if Sturm really
> cared or not, after all, you only loose a tad bit of experience, and
> dying means nothing. [Except there it kept a tally of the times that
> you died, so it was just a bigger number] --- Now, naturally, I KNEW
> the gods would get mad, but in any event, what did I do? I showed them
> that "Hey, the safe room isn't safe.", also, I teleported into the
> "morgue", where the corpses were stored when you die --- Some place
> they thought you couldn't get to. So, I showed them that too. [Actually
> I did just say, "Hey, fix the morgue, I'm in it."] (Oh, also, I charmed
> the healer and led it off into a no exit room -- all sotrs of things
> like that that I actually helped them fix ;)
> 
> For the most part, I really enjoy trying odd things out. Some people
> are just born that way perhaps ;) My girlfriend says I just like to
> break things... I say its more like, "Can I do ..." and if so, why,
> and if not, why.

But is this based in a desire to test things, or a desire to INVENT!?  I
suppose most people that actually program computers (which can be a painful
task indeed) have some inherent desire to create and perhaps get an insight
into new posibilities.  Which somehow is quite different from the desire to
fight.

Now, user inventions is a particularly interesting issue, which I believe is
currently underrated in most designs, maybe because it is difficult to
support?  Anyway, given that most users probably don't have a particular
problem to solve by them inventing things, what is then the underlying
problem that drives the desire to invent?  From a designers point of view it
would have been rather convinient if that problem was related to the
question:

  How can I participate, promote and support the community?

For some users that might be it, but others, the following would probably be
more representative:

  How do I make this system mine?

Not to be taken literally of course, but more as a wanted feeling.  The most
obvious path to gaining some type of ownership is obviously to gain some
kind of power over it or at least some exclusive insight.  

I believe this desire to feel some kind of ownership is general and not
essentially a powergaming trip.  However, it all depends on your
valuesystem. If belonging to a group is important, then you might feel some
kind of ownership by chatting reqularly.  If you feel technical expertise is
important then gaining insight into the weaknesses of the system might be
your things. Etc.

Comments?
--
Ola Fosheim Groestad,Norway  URL: http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~olag/worlds/