[MUD-Dev] The grass is always greener in the other field

[Joe Andrieu]

-----Original Message-----
J C Lawrence wrote

[snip]
Conversely, the problem with a game is that "notice" is a much more
manipulable fact than IRL.  There are social structures and routines=20
built into RL that deal with "suspicious activities" that don't
exist or particularly pertain to MUDdom. =20
[snip]
----------------------------

JC--

You just stumbled on the solution: have an IC solution that mirrors how =
we handle it in real life.  Consider two scenarios:

1. I have a hut in the woods.  Over time, the nearby area becomes =
sparsely populated, enough for people to know there's a hut, but not =
really enough for their to be any organized sort of police. And there =
aren't any neighbors for miles. Now, I happen to log^H^H^H stop by the =
hut once every couple of days.  If someone was persistent enough, they =
could wait for me to check in and leave, then start picking that padlock =
and have a full day or two before I or anyone else would see them. And =
they'd get all my loot.  The fact is, this is limited in urban settings =
because we DO have police and forensics and neighbors and all sorts of =
things that provide significant negative consequences if you get caught, =
which is probable for certain types of crime.  Why should a MUD be so =
easy to be a criminal?

2. Consider how the stand-alone adventure game Thief handles it.  Sure, =
you can take a large amount of time to handle a particular job. But =
there is a good chance that you'll be discovered if you take too long or =
are noisy. And if you aren't paying attention... Whack! You can die =
really quickly.

IRL you don't have infinite time to solve risky problems. So put a guard =
near that lock, a guard who comes by on sentry duty once every few =
minutes or so. I'm sure if he found a macro-driven thief blindly picking =
the lock, he'd have no problem dispatching the poor fool. =20

End of problem.


-j





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