[MUD-Dev] The Relationship between pkers andmonster AI?

[Mik Clarke]

Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> 
> On 07:55 PM 9/10/1999 +0000, I personally witnessed Dundee jumping up to say:
> >On Thu, 09 Sep 1999 17:38:18 -0700, Caliban Tiresias Darklock
> ><caliban at darklock.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On 07:55 PM 9/9/1999 +0000, I personally witnessed Dundee jumping up to say:
> >> >
> >> >PKing doesn't exist outside of MUD'dom.  If you get PK'd in the ol' weekly
> >> >tabletop D&D game, then someone doesn't come back next week - either the PK
> >> >or you.
> >>
> >> Um, that depends rather strongly on the group. My AD&D group delighted in
> >
> >By PKing, I mean non-consensual PvP combat.
> 
> You mean like when one player just attacks another without previous
> arrangement or agreement? Yup, that's just what we did.
> 
> >If you delighted in killing each other and your typical game consisted of
> >fighting each other, then it wasn't non-consensual.
> 
> There was no inherent understanding that in any given game, we were going
> to get into big intraparty brawls. It just happened that way. We never set
> out to do this. Half the time we sat around at the end of the evening going
> "why do all our games turn out like this?" and laughing about it. But THAT
> DOES NOT MAKE IT CONSENSUAL. Acceptance and consent are two different things.

No, the point is that after the first session or two it became accepted
(and
to some extent) expected behaviour within your group.  You cannot keep
meeting and playing for 6 years if you do something that is not within
the bounds of 'expected' play.  This concept of expected play - the
unwritten contract of what a mud will supply is important as it affects
players expectations of what will happen.  Wandering mobs are accepted
as
a part of them game.  Other parts are expected to be safe and PCs get
rightly upset when the admins fail to keep them so (or at least to
provide
adequate warning that they are no longer safe).  People who do not
expect
to get attacked by other players (having done nothing to offend them)
get
more than a little upset when they are mugged or murdered for no reason
other than simply looking like an easy mark.

Mik



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