[MUD-Dev] [LONG] A slightly different perspective on Real money in Virtual worlds.

[Morten Andresen]

On the 12th april 2000 Zak Jarvis wrote:
> I bowed out, sold one of my old computers and made a trip out to Los
Angeles to
> visit some of the friends I'd met in the game. As it happened, I stayed
with
> Shinobu and I also had planned to meet with Anne while I was in LA. To
condense
> the story a bit, Anne turned out to not be Anne at all. Anne, in fact, was
a
> man. I learned this from another friend while in the car to meet 'her'. I
wasn't
> really bothered by that exactly, his characters were role-played really
rather
> well. The deception bothered me though, and ultimately, I ended up feeling
> pretty good about the choice I'd made. (IE, not giving it to 'her')

	I'm sure this subject has probably been touched earlier in the MUD-DEV
mailing-list history, but I think it's a very important topic: How people
can
change their social attitude completely depending on their enviroment.

	I think it's a part of human nature to adapt to any given enviroment, and
in
Zak Jarvis' description of the occurences surrounding this event, it's very
clear,
that "Anne" tried to exercise this ability to manipulate people to do what
'she'
wanted them to do. With remarkably little social engineering in the form of
friendly conversations,  "flirtatious in a low-key but persistent and out of
character way" you can get other people to trust you in a very short time,
thus
providing valuable info, which is needed to carry out your selected goal.

	This adapting to your enviroment is something that not only occurs on the
internet, but in everyday life. Every person has several "masks", which he
wears
according to whom he is communicating with. With your family you act in one
way,
with your friends another. But it's especially on the Internet, that you can
act
much in the way you please. Because as several others have noted: The
repercussions
and ramifications are too small to be note-worthy. In Zak Jarvis' case
"Anne" had
a lot to gain. A position of stature - respect from other people (something
we all
need. To have our self-esteem confirmed), and this is enough to make our
"mask"
named greed step into effect. The visions of what is obtainable makes us
willing
to go to great lengths and even hurt other people's feelings in a game,
which is
supposed to be about having fun!

	There are several note-worthy historical events concerning this topic too:
Adolf Hitler was perceived by the world as a facist. But his closest friends
and
family described him as a nice person - something everyone from the western
world
find very hard to believe, but I think this is exactly the point here. How
our
behaviour can change in less than a minute to fit the current situation. And
especially people with a high charisma. Example: Millosevic from Serbia: We
ask:
"How can he gain such a large amount of support from the people when he's
doing so
much evil?". To the west he is presented as a vicious man, to the people of
Serbia
he's a man that isn't afraid to stand up against everything the western
world stands
for.

	But what does this have to do with developing MUDs you might say... This is
not
as much of an document on specific MUD players, as it is of human nature. In
human
nature lies the key to a successful MUD. By studying the human mind, you
will also
find the reasons for why players act the way they do. Ex.: Selling
characters online.
These are all basic human motivations behind the "masks": greed, need of
respect,
love etc. And these things can make people change "masks" yet again. We all
have
these masks. And all other masks are mixtures of those. Therefore ALL people
behave
different (on MUDs) according to:

* which MUD it is they're playing

* whom they're playing with

* the general theme of the MUD

	Although the specific incident Zak Jarvis describes, brought with it bad
events,
I think that these "masks" are what makes the world colorful. In the ideal
MUD, in
which everything is player run (government, religions etc.), this treachery
would
even help roleplay along. It represents the real world's politics... Both
the
politics today and 2000 years ago. But the unfortunate part is, that some
players
don't know when it's time to stop, and this is where it gets dangerous. My
policy is,
that roleplaying is good - to a certain extent... When blood-feuds split up
the MUD
because half of the MUD side with one person over OOC reasons, and the other
half
wants to settle it according to the in-game rules (debates in the councils
etc.),
the MUD itself suffers. So generally I think it's good for people to change
their
"masks" once in a while, but then the question is: "How do you prepare a MUD
for all
these different masks people wear? How do protect it from OOC interference
(If
possible)?"

Best Wishes,
Morten Andresen
MGON International AB




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