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

[J C Lawrence]

On Sat, 19 Sep 1998 12:03:35 -0400 
James Wilson<jwilson at rochester.rr.com> wrote:

> 'darkie' is a racist epithet. like 'spade' or 'nigger', but to a
> lesser degree (imo). 'whitie' is a racist term blacks use for
> whites, akin to 'honky' or 'cracker' (tho that is a bit more
> specific, meaning something closer to 'redneck'). this is unlike
> chess in that the black and white chess pieces are not named
> 'wop's and 'spic's.

While I'm going to carefully let rest the possible racist
implications of the whitie/darkie wars (at least with this post tho
I'll admit that I would absolutely love to see a "niggers versus the
limey bastards" MUD), the question of the massive and sustained
popularity of the black/white, good/evil games begs interest.

At a _game_design_ level, what is it about the whitie/darkie war
games that is so compelling, that is so fun, that begs so much
player fascination?  The simple mechanic seems to be that players
are automatically placed in opposition with most of the benefits of
a free PK game with few of the down sides.  

  What would happen in such a bipolar game if you inserted support
for Marian's Tailor, or Cat's Stamp Collector, or even the
unaffiliated hermit in the woods...  Would the game design be able
to stretch that far and still retain its playability?  Why?

I've often asserted the utter playability of Shades.  It is a most
astoundingly _playable_ game.  In the world of MUDs I'd argue it
challenges DOOM for simple instant playability.  It also has levels,
killing for XP, free PK, a reset based world (every hour), very very
simple mechanics (no containers, almost no language grammar beyond
<verb> <object>, no channels, no spell system, no classes, no
alignments, no races, no clans, etc).  Factually, outside of having
a place to run around in and things to kill and kill with, there's
little feature wise with current MUDs or the designs we discuss
here.  Yet, with all of that, it is playable and has real depth for
its players (as witnessed by the player mags and 'zines).  

Why?  What is it about Shades that works so well?  How can it NOT do 
all things so many think are necessary for a "good game", and yet
remain worth while?

That said, how many here have (fairly) recently played Rogue, Larn,
Moria, Hack or some other similar 2D ASCII graphics, maze/monster
game?  How many of you would willingly and enjoyably play them again
now?  What is about them as game designs that makes the enjoyable?

--
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...