[MUD-Dev] ALife? was [RE: Personal Interest vs. Marketing Decision WAS RE:...]

[Greg Underwood]

At 11:31 AM 4/17/00 -0700, Zak Jarvis wrote:

<...>

>Going a bit off on a tangent here, have you given thought for how to make an
>ALife system work after your initial experience with it? The way I'd
approach it
>(after seeing how yours failed. :) would be to ensure that the interactions
>within it mattered to the players. If they knew they could get extra
leather to
>make into tunics by killing all the wolves and increasing the deer
population,
>they might take a more active role.

I'd think that them killing off all the wolves would disrupt the ALife
system.  I mean, the wolves do more than keep the deer population in check.
 I'd think that specific example would tend to push the players into the
position of being a disruptive force w/i the ALife system.

<donning flame resistant clothing as I type>
Of course, since the only apparent model we have is one of excess, where
humans (read: PCs) are a disruptive force, is it even possible to design a
system where the players matter but are not disruptive?  Hasn't human
history shown that we are hell-bent on destroying the planet we live on?
What makes you think your target audience is going to be any more willing
to excersize restraint in a game environment when humanity as a whole has
proven they won't when it really matters?
</rant>

> Or, if they could lure the mighty Earth
>Ettin Titan into the cave of the Exceptionally Hungry Brown Dragon so the two
>would duke it out, then they could polish off the survivor...

How is that related to ALife?  Players did that on EoD when it was up in
'94-'95, and they didn't think it up.

-Greg




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