[MUD-Dev] Balancing Addicts -> soft vs. hard enforcement

[J C Lawrence]

On Mon, 16 Mar 1998 21:25:46 PST8PDT 
Jon A Lambert<jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> On 16 Mar 98 at 12:52, cimri wrote:
>> Ling <K.L.Lo-94 at student.lboro.ac.uk> wrote: 

> For instance the shopkeeper problem can be approached many
> ways and here's my brief list from least to most desireable.

> 2) Make shopkeepers much more powerful than any player or group of
> players.

This one is nof course difficult and prone to trouble.  Given a
flexible system with internally consistant mechanics (yeah right), the
inventivness of players knows few bounds.  Sure you can't kill the
shopkeeper directly.  But how about if you magically lift a small
mountain and then drop it on him?  How about if you blow the damn and
put him under a few hundred feet of water?  Lava?  Fell a tree on him?
Dig a very large pit under his feet?  Poison?  Strangulation?
Suffocation?  Starvation?  Dehydration?

> And finally
> implement a in-game legal system (or a laughably unjust and
> merciless one).

Not that I have any ideas on there at all...

> The latter seems to most desirable as it provides a social deterent
> and enhances the believability factor.  

Certainly!  Laughably unjust and merciless legal systems are quite
realistic and are familiar to many players.  Island had a perfect case
in point as Keegan discussed back when.

<<If I drop his name enough, will he reappear?>>

> One should also remember, it
> does make this "discouraged" activity more attractive to many
> seeking anarchistic and destructive thrills, yet harder to benefit
> from in the long run.  Careful attention to loopholes is required.

I could see notoriety being associated with such, "Yeah, Bubba finally
finally figured out how to kill that baker.  'Course he had to turn
half of Olympus into glowing blue slag to do it, but hot damn it was a 
show!" or "Bubba's geting _very_ sneaky!  There's not a trace of him
here, and he's got good alibis, but we all know he killed the
baker...There's just no way he could get all the way from here to the
BugHole in 10 seconds..."

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                               Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------(*)                     Internet: claw at under.engr.sgi.com
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...