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

[quzah]

From: Matthew R. Sheahan <chaos at crystal.palace.net> on Saturday, September 19,
1998 at 5:22 PM
Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Marian's Tailor vs. Psychopaths


>quzah [sotfhome] propagated a meme to the effect of:
>> Given the above, I hardly see racisim in the term 'darkie', since
>> the original poster was equating the term 'darkie' with the player
>> killers. (IE: PK == BAD) Shrug. But hey, what do I know, I'm just
>> a 'whitie'.
>
>around and about Washington, DC, there is a restaurant called "Whitey's".
>naturally enough, in their parking lot is a large sign bearing the legend,
>"Parking for Whitey's Only".


Sigh; what a fine country I live in. Hmm, I have never used the term
'darkie' and/or its counterpart, and I don't even think I have heard
them used. Sadly, I can see that they are used in said manner, and
thus will drop this topic.

>ObMudDev: the first step to solving the Tailor Problem is having a game
>where killing is of zero benefit in and of itself and usually carries
>inherent risk; i.e. a game built on some model other than the "kill and
>level" driven system typical to MUDs and to computer games which are
>radically mislabeled "RPGs".
>
> chiaroscuro

Well, if there is death, how do you implement it? (Perm-deadh, or no-
big-deal-standard-diku-death?) If the prior, then I would suggest, be
it far fetched, doing something like allowing the player the option
of buying a curse/blessing (you decide) for themselves, where all of
their posessions are destryoed on death. Why? Then the player killer
cannot steal any of their items when they die. -- Or, buy a curse,
where when you kill me, I kill you. (Instant revenge.) Or perhaps, a
way that the damage that you do to me, goes back to you instead. Off
the top of my head, I can't see a way to abuse that, because if I
damage myself, it should just damage me, and if I damage someone else
it should just damage me.

Naturally, with hunters hunting game and such, you would need to go
and have an explanation why they can't kill players; but, if you are
not going for a perfect-sim, then just set the facts as such. "Hey,
you play here and attack someone, there's hell to pay."

For the 'perfect-sim' method, the issue wouldn't even come up due
to the fact that humans slaughter eachother every day; and a sim
trying for every day life (with the exception of mythical stuff
dropped in perhaps) would echo the fact that you can kill your
pal. Shrug.

The above is not an ideal solution, but just a quickie that could
be thrown in to "work".
-Q-