[MUD-Dev] characters per account

[Timothy Dang]

On Tue, 4 Apr 2000, F. Randall Farmer wrote:

> Timothy Dang wrote:
>  > I'm sure there's no way to absolutely prevent multiplaying, but I'd
>  > find suggestions on how to reduce it without destroying the appeal of
>  > a game very useful.
>
> Actually, I'd like to see a set of reasons for even _attempting_ the
> goal of one character per player.

And then...

On Wed, 5 Apr 2000, Ola Fosheim [iso-8859-1] Gr=F8stad wrote:

> Under the assumption that you want this for methodological reasons, then
> I think you have several options.

Yes, my reasons are ideosyncratic. I want to use games for economic
research, and multiple characters per player put a serious kink in
analyzing any data that comes out of a game. It would still be worthwhile,
but if multiplaying(*) was less common, the analysis would be smoother and
more trustworthy. Thanks for your suggestions, Ola. . While I don't really
*like* any of them, I think it's possible that that's the best I'll be
able to do.

(*) Does "multiplaying" typically imply playing multiple characters at the
same time, or is it appropriate to use it (as I am) to imply playing
multiple characters asynchronously?

All the same, I hear echoes of my concerns from people who want to prevent
multiple characters for game reasons. Allowing multiple characters can
easily encourage a sort of solipsism where a player is completely reliant
upon themselves (in different incarnations), and so doesn't interact much
with others. It has the potential to populate the world with PCs who are
little more than zombies serving another's interests. It can be used to
circumvent any legal institutions built into the game. And it allows
players to avoid consequences of reputation.

Probably there are partial design solutions for all of these problems (if=
=20
one considers them problems). But just as there's no absolute way to
prevent multiplaying, I doubt there are absolute ways to fix these. And as
much as they are remediable, how much does the repaired game mechanic
resemble what we're used to?

One of the problems comes down to the, "what are we doing here?" question.
Let's assume one could build a really beautiful reputation system. Then,
does the reputation follow the character or the player? If the reputation
follows the character, then players will use multiple characters to avoid
the reputational consequences of their actions. If the reputation follows
the player, then you're denying players the opportunity to roleplay both a
hero and a scoundrel. And even this assumes that reputation isn't
important enough for players to create extra accounts for the benefit of
subverting it.

------------------------------
Timothy O'Neill Dang / Cretog8
520-321-4015
One monkey don't stop no show.





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