[MUD-Dev] Re: Marian's Tailor vs. Psychopaths

[ApplePiMan at aol.com]

At 10/3/98 12:40 PM Matthew Peck x96724c1 (x96724 at exmail.usma.army.mil) 
altered the fabric of reality by uttering:

>> set_bit(player,no_pk); /*This player does not wish to attack, or be
>> attacked
>> by humans*/
>> It could also encompas attacks by charmed mobs, and "flame channels"
>> 
>For many MUDs though, this is unrealistic.  For example, what about the
>thousands of murder victims every year in this country alone?  They cannot
>set a no_pk flag, and they most likely did not want to kill or be killed,
>yet they are dead anyway.

Do characters in your game have bladders that fill and must be emptied? 
Are they required to have different wardrobes for different seasons or 
suffer the consequences? Do you make them periodically issue "breathe" 
commands or die? Perhaps so, but I doubt it...

You pick and choose what you want to model from RL in building a world. 
Just because, in our world, there's such a thing as murder does not 
*necessarily* mean it *has* to be modelled in our game worlds. If it's 
there, it's because we, as designers, chose to allow it.

That says nothing as to whether it's right or wrong to allow murder in 
our game worlds, which is an issue I view with a large degree of 
ambivalence, mostly because death, and even violent death, is such a 
large part of living. Let's just not fall into the trap of assuming that, 
because it exists IRL, murder *must* be a part of our worlds. Let's keep 
its implementation the conscious decision it should be.

-Rick.


---------------------------------------------------------
Rick Buck, President and CEO  <mailto:rlb at big-i.com>
Beyond Infinity Games, Inc.
See you in The Metaverse! <http://www.big-i.com>