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

[J C Lawrence]

On Mon, 13 Sep 1999 22:28:46 -0700 (PDT) 
Matthew Mihaly <diablo at best.com> wrote:

> The social contract is a transparent invention designed as a tool
> to enable the majority to repress the minority. Muds have nothing
> to do with social contracts. Muds are, by and large, autocracies
> or oligarchies.

Groups and societies by their nature as groups, require some sense
of agreement as to common purpose or action among their members.
Rarely is that agreement documented, explicitly agreed to, or even
very well known.  Those agreements are the "social contract".  They
are not unique to flat social structures and are present in
autocracies just as well as small boy's clubs.  The only difference
is in the content of the agreements, not their basic function.  

That this is used as a manipulative tool can be of no surprise.
That is not the source of the function however.  Consider it merely
an unintended side effect that the game designer didn't predict or
consider important that some players take advantage of.

As Lambert says, the players will always find the shortest route to
the cheese.

> I don't believe in them the same way that I do not believe in
> God. I believe that the idea of God (or unicorns) exists, just as
> I believe that some people harbor naive ideas about a social
> contract, but I think that the idea of a social contract holding
> any validity is laughable. I stop a red lights only because I
> think it is my best interest. I regularly drive through stoplights
> if I do not judge that there is any risk of a) runnning into
> another car or b) getting busted by a thug in blue. An adult is
> ruled by his conscience and judgement. A child is ruled by the
> laws of others.

The sad point of this is that for the groups to survive, the basic
agreements etc of those groups must be pro-survival both for the
group and the individual members.  Ergo, adherence to those
agreements in turn is, quite literally, often in one's
self-interest.  It has nothing to do with police or enforced
justice, but the collective experience of the group as qualitatively
expressed as mores.

> The best government is a monarchy. The worst government is also a
> monarchy. 

Few can argue with a benign dictator.  As such a principle problem
of government is ensuring the inheritors of power continue in the
good traits of their predecessors.

--
J C Lawrence      Life: http://www.kanga.nu/   Home: claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                Work (Linux/IA64): claw at varesearch.com
 ... Beware of cromagnons wearing chewing gum and palm pilots ...


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