[MUD-Dev] Re: Recursive look

[Darrin Hyrup]

At 01:28 PM 10/29/98 -1000, Nathan F Yospe wrote:
>On Thu, 29 Oct 1998, Ola Fosheim [iso-8859-1] Gr=F8stad wrote:
>
>:Marian Griffith wrote:
>:> Something like that would be a sure way to drive any woman away from the
>:> computer games even more so than happens already. I think we have talked
>:
>:  Miss Kitsch arrives.
>:  Miss Kitsch looks so HOT, you can't keep your eyes off her.
>:  Miss Kitsch left.
>:>i
>:  Your pockets are empty.
>
>Ah, I like it. May have to implement the likes in my maniuplated perception
>code...

Yeah, it is cute... and easy to do in most muds too.

>:I think that is kinda cute... If you make all women look like helpless
>:sexobjects then it is sexist. There are other ways:
>
>:  Miss Kitsch arrives.
>:  You get overly excited, A WOMAN at last.
>:  Miss Kitsch winks "Follow me, Hunk!".
>:  Miss Kitsch left west.
>:> w
>:  You're so excited, moving would hurt!  Fuck those tight jeans...
>:> w
>:  ...Oh, there we go! Your pants are wet and sticky... *sigh*
>
>Ewwww... that was needlessly graphic, Ola. Not to mention taking the whole
>manipulation of characters' personalities waaay farther than I ever would.

That scene reminds me from one of the MUD worlds Richard Bartle was testing
a while back.  Part of the creation system involved choosing your
attributes and determining your fetishes, etc.  Quite amusing... and
perfectly reasonable for a game that caters to that motif.

>:think a lot of sexually mature (selfconfident) women would find such games
>:funny, given the physical safety and anonymity the net provides.
>
>Hmm. Maybe... Personally, I've always played characters with notable
>deformities on muds.

Could even be more entertaining in a world like that. :)

>:However, if the game goes on to set stereotypical standards for breast
>:sizes, penis sizes and butt sizes then it is off limits.  I don't see sex=
 as
>:the problem, but telling the user implicitly that their physical self is=
 not
>:sexy, or that you have to look like this or that, or that sexy people are
>:stupid, is a very bad idea...
>
>Personally, I'd be tempted to design a mud with no genders - and no means
>of claiming a gender. Alternately (Singularity, and probably Physmud, if
>it follows suit), most species have gender complexities and issues totally
>alien to our own.

I'd like to see a well-designed game world with no concept of gender.
Unfortunately, the duality of masculine and feminine is part of our psyche
on a  conceptual level, so even if you were to eliminate it from the game
world, players would still apply gender-based roles to themselves and
others because that is more comfortable to them.  It is not helped by the
fact that most human languages are gender-biased, so trying to speak (or
write) without gender reference is quite difficult.

Best,

Darrin