[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) Re: POLL: Games ruined by bad players (Player killers, tank rushers etc)

[Chris Gray]

[JC Lawrence:]

:I would note that any competitive game which involves the concept of
:"beating" another player is actually a variation on the "killing"
:games, just with a prettier face drawn over the gore via poker chips
:or property cards etc.  This suggests that the deliniation among games 
:on this point is specious, or at best artificial.  

OK, I'll bite. A difference you are paving over here is that of what is
left after the different kinds of competition. In a game where the goal
is to defeat (avoiding the perhaps loaded term 'beat') other players at
some task such as property management, risk management, economic fore-
casting, etc., both players are still around at the end of the game. In
fact, both players may well be improved by the game in that they now are
better at whatever the game involved. In a game where the goal is to kill
the other player, one of the player's (in the game context) is gone after
the game is done. Hence, there is likely to be a significant net loss in
available resources after the game is over. So, I think painting all
competitive games with the same brush is unwarrented.

That said, the cynical side of me says that if you have members of society
who enjoy going around killing things/people, then the game does a service
to society by getting rid of one of them. This could be true in the real
world as well as in the game world. I'll now go crawl back under my rock.

--
Chris Gray   cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA


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MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.