[MUD-Dev] Re: Thoughts

[Ling]

On Wed, 13 Jan 1999, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:

> I'd be lying if I pretended getting something into Koster's laws isn't one
> of my primary motivations in many of my posts on this list. Raph's list of
> laws lies firmly in an area that I've always given a lot of thought to, but
> I *still* don't have anything in there, which really bothers me. That said,
> I'll fire off my current candidates and then go hide from the flying
> tomatoes and cabbages. ;)

>From the above statement comes: "Your players won't bother playing your
mud unless they can pose to other players." :)  I admit I feel quite
chuffed whenever I get quoted anywhere, after all, I'm only some random
person in the crowd. 

I think this is quite a large motivator for combat muds where item,
equipment and gunk are acquirable assets.  Ever popped onto a mud and had
a higher level player take you on a tour of his kewl abilities?

[snip insightful bits]

> The theory of player relativity:
> No statistic has meaning without comparison. Unless you know where the other
> players are, where you happen to be is completely irrelevant. This is true e
> ven in games where there is no score or statistic, because when you do not
> provide a way of measuring performance, the public will invent one
> externally.
> 
> How benchmarks are built:
> When no measure of quality is readily provided, a measure of quality will be
> invented by a player who performs well under that measure. It will be
> supported by others who perform well under it. If there are enough of those
> people, the rest of the playerbase will conclude that this is the "correct"
> measure of a player's skill. This becomes the de facto object of your game,
> and you will be blamed for its every ill while those who created it will
> take all the credit for its successes.
> 
> Peek-a-boo:
> If the player cannot see it, it does not exist. If you do not display a
> level, then your game has no levels. If you do not expose a system, there is
> no such system. If no secret item has been found, there are no secret items.
> If no score is displayed, the game has no score.

I feel this contradicts with the previous two.  Is that deliberate or am I
missing something?

  |    Ling Lo (aka Lethargic Lad)
_O_O_  kllo at iee.org