[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #142 - 4 msgs

[Marian Griffith]

On Tue 24 Aug, Greg Miller wrote:
> Marian Griffith wrote:

> > the players  do not want to play nicely by the rules.  It all comes down
> > to the fact  that in the end  there is very little players can really do
> > to somebody  who wants to make trouble.  Often  it also comes at a price
> > other players may not be willing to pay. (e.g. the taylor's dilemma).

> This, of course, varies wildly depending on the nature of the game
> itself, as well as the nature of the players.

Not really.  Because nothing that is done to the game character affects
the player himself, you are very limited in what you can do to stop un-
wanted behaviour (regardless of what you decide is unwanted).
Killing the character means little. The character returns to the temple
and the player can continue doing what he was doing.
Repeatedly killing the character  is a form of harassment in itself and
even so the player just waits an hour until you grow bored, returns and
starts again.
Banning the character  only requires the player to create a new charac-
ter, and begin anew.
Site banning probably harms more players,  and in fact I have seen that
it was used  to take RL revenge on a player of a mud  by somebody else.
The other person just kept coming back  until the imms, in desperation,
site banned him.  This also made it impossible  for the intended victim
to play, which had been the whole point of the action.

> > There is a fundamental similarity as well:  both systems fail  with suf-
> > ficiently motivated troublemakers  (and sooner or later you are going to
> > encounter one of those).

> Well, that depends on what you mean by "fail" and "troublemaker"...

See above for an example of what I mean by determined troublemaker.

> If the objective is to enforce your own morality and style of play, there's
> no reason not to go with the former system (direct enforcement by NPC or
> game mechanics). If you let the players choose, you may not like their
> choices--and that's what appears to be what you mean by "fail" in this
> case.

Not at all. I think I have refered to the tailor's dilemma to explain
what I mean.  Basically it comes down to the following: If one player
does not want to fight/PK and another does,  how can the first player
protect herself?  Forcing her to learn to fight (which is essentially
what happens with player enforced justice) is obviously not the right
solution since she has no interest in that direction  and it seems to
be wrong to force her.


Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey




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