[MUD-Dev] Re: Affordances and social method

[Robert Woods]

On Wed, 29 Jul 1998, Leach, Brad BA wrote:

> I certainly think it could be an interesting toy to play with. A mud
> with theme involving building (to provide tools to conquest?) as its
> primary function. Sid Meier's "Civilization" certainly comes to mind
> here. It seems, based on the success of online "build and conquer" games
> such as Starcraft, that people enjoy that theme. I wonder how successful
> it would be in a text only environment? Balance would be interesting -
> the real advantage of current "build and conquer" games is that they
> only last for a few hours - not a few months or years. How can the
> environment be balanced so that it doesnt suffer from excessive growth,
> over-population, polution, global meltdown, etc, etc?
> I am certainly going to be thinking about this over the next few days
> though. :-)
> 

But then, what's wrong with excessive growth, over-population, pollution,
global meltdown, etc, etc?  Just include them in the game.  It'll make
people have to figure out ways to fight it.  Got over-population?  Well,
we have history's solutions - take the people you don't like and kill them
(Hitler), don't allow parents to have more than 1 child (a simplification
of China's longtime policy), just go start a war with someone, etc., etc.
Or, they can figure out a method themselves.  As long as you allow them to
abate the problems, a lot of people will enjoy it.  You will get a
definitely different clientele...the Civilization/Sim * buffs will enjoy
it.  Then again, you could incorporate this into a standard RPG...separate
the game world into nations, have leaders and citizens of the nations
(leaders could be mortals or immortals, depending on how you wanted to do
it).  Many MUDders enjoy that side of things to an extent, at least from
what I've seen.  They want to achieve supremacy over at least a part of
the game.  What better way than gaining power in a player-run nation?
Possibly even overthrowing the current ruler, seceding from a nation and
beginning your own, with your loyal followers.

Again, it adds a new dimension to a game that can often become a little
bit monotonous - "Hmmm...where shall I go kill stupid mobs today?" for
those who have played for a long time.

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I'm not insane, I'm just irrational.

-Bob