[MUD-Dev] Article on Proxes

[adam at treyarch.com]

On Fri, 7 Apr 2000, Christopher Allen wrote:
> An Evening at Chez Skoot - Proxes Part 1: Consent
> =================================================
> [snip stuff about close actions and accept/deny/counter]

Good stuff.  This is actually a much more refined version of some stuff
I was messing with in college.  I first got the idea for giving the target
of a non-forceful action more control over the outcome when, in the early
days of LegendMUD, some jerk mage would run around and hand low-level
players invisible items that cost tons of rent.  (Since it was invisible,
you couldn't see it and couldn't drop it, but it would keep you from being
able to rent because it cost so much.)  This made me ponder the silliness
of the "give" mechanics, so I came up with a simple offer/accept command
pair, that worked like so:

Bubba offers you ten gold coins.
% accept
You accept ten gold coins.
%
Bubba offers you a lit stick of dynamite.
% n
You go north.


If you didn't "accept" something, the offerer would just stand there holding
out the item looking a bit foolish.

This led us to begin pondering all player interactions, and soon we came to
the same conclusion that the Skotos gang did - it's silly that someone can
fondle you, kiss you, hug you, or even shake your hand without your consent.

To this end we set what we call a paranoia level: how hard you try to avoid
these actions from various parties.  There was a default for everyone, and
then you could adjust it on a case by case basis for individual players and
NPCs.  Note that it was still *possible* to get a peck on the lips or a
slap on the back, if your attention was diverted at the time, or if you simply
weren't quick enough to avoid it.  (The idea was that the message would
indicate your attempt to avoid it, so the people watching wouldn't necessarily
think that you were consenting to the action.)

And this extended to more than just avoiding the embarassment of being
kissed by Mr./Ms. Ugly - it carried gameplay reprocutions.

For example, diseases are spread by contact.  Let someone kiss and hug you
for a while and soon you will have any contagious diseaseses that they may
be carrying.  There was also the abilty to "cloak" and "uncloak" yourself,
to hide your identity and your equipment - you could also try to uncloak
others, if you were fast enough, in order to reveal their identity.  Finally,
thieving was not based on sneaking up and picking someone's pocket without
them seeing you, as is usually the case, but rather it had to be masked by
an action.  It could be as simple as a jostle as they walk out of the room,
but running into them, or better yet, giving them a big hug, makes it much
less likely that the thief will be detected.

I think I like this stuff so much because they are social tools.  We often
speak of giving players more social tools at the high level (players-run
guilds or towns, for example) - but what about at the most basic level,
regulation who gets to interact with you in the most basic ways?  This
stuff starts to address the issue at that level.

Applause to Skotos, and thanks for posting the article, Christopher.

Adam





_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev