[MUD-Dev] From banning the sale of items to virtual slavery...

[Stéphane Garin <youri@wanadoo.fr>]

Hi all,


First thanks for this discussion, my English is not good enough to
participate as I would to this discussion but many of you told what I
think in better word than I'm able to use...

I will use this excerpt to began my m=E9galomaniac essay, but i could use=

many other from this thread.

> However, the admin issues also relate to the nature of what goods are
being
> sold. =85
> =85As you might guess, Brad and Toby said that eBay auctioning was bad.=

And I
> said that it was mostly good. And the reasons why are because of what
gets
> sold on the respective games. So I think Ryan's thesis is absolutely
> correct--for EverQuest.

An Idea which knock my head for long : All the psychoanalysts will
confirm - and not only cause it's a good way for them to get cash- that
paying for something will strengthening the sentiment/value of property,
so if it's maybe a bad thing for an avatar or a character (a kind of
virtual slavery? I develop this after), I think it's going in the right
way for materials objects cause it's reinforce the realism of the
game...

For me and I hope few others, the ultimate RPG is the one which immerse
totally the player in his/her avatar, that means all the things which
gave realism should be retain. With the growth of the computing power we
may see in few years (month?) some real cyberspace with real IA Agent,
world in persistent evolution and, and this is important, firs person 3D
graphic representation and dynamic sound who will gave this the
appearance of real life.
Read the excellent article by Crosbie Fitch (Gamasutra March 13, 2000) :

Cyberspace in the 21st Century : Cyberspace and Twelve Monkeys.

But this dream could turn rapidly in a virtual nightmare (but by
definition nightmare are virtual) .

I remember a paper RPG I loved to play with, until the day I discover
some rules who rule the rape of women and the way to torture a man, of
course I play (still play) with a lot of pleasure evil cleric or Orc who
made (suppose to) lot of such action but I -cant explain in English
(even in French that's the problem) - think that the fact of ruling it,
step over the border of what is acceptable!

Hypocrisy?

If we analys the two paragraph, we get a beautiful vicious circle : we
have to immerse the player to this virtual reality, but always make him
realise that it's only a game.
A well game design (the first one) make you rich
A good game design (the second) make mankind more responsible, more
sensible in the complexity of her mankindness.

Ok I know, the solution is GAME DESIGN itself, but game designing
responsibility, political right, justice and so many things which take
few century (milenar) to be imperfectly design in RL, will be a very
complex, long and hard working in VL, even if (I think because) we use
(have to for technical reason for example) some simplification.

Internet (I sing it's praises three time a day), computer and cognitive
science gave us the capacity to play the most exiting r=F4le playing game=
,
"create an Univers", and take the greatest role The GOD one
But i follow my megalomaniac metaphor, I'm quite sure that the Market
will take the r=F4le of Sha=EFtan, Iblis, or Lucifer (an extremist believ=
er
will say the contrary).

Matt say on Mud Dev verse : banning the sale of items

>> If we're talking about big MMORPGs here, who cares if it creates a
better
>> game. All that matters (or should matter to me, if the game is being
>> created for a publically-traded company) is how much profit it makes.

And he is right (and I'm sure he do not sold his mind to Lucifer :o)

And Zark replied on Mud Dev verse : banning the sale of items:

>> The players care. The more the players feel it's a good game, the
less churn.
>> The less churn, the longer the life of the product. The longer the
life of the
>> pr oduct, the more prestige you gather. The more prestige, the easier
to get
>> backing for further products. Etc.

But Zac is an Utopist, cause if he is not, why Independence Day make
more than 5 million entry and Mars Attack only 500 000 (aproximate)

And I'm sure if I told to my investor OK we have a MMORPG game who is
working (after 5M$), but we need 2 more to implement the multi-Agent
system with justice Processus or the Declaration of the Rights of
Avatars (I like this words), I know his response (And I'm sure too that
i will not try to convince them with a bible metaphor :o)

So cause I'm a cleaver man I want to learn from the history and don't
want to make a "deluge" all the two weeks cause those damn players are
really too chaotic=85

No I am not an horrible puritan, nether than a disgusting agnostic=85

I am just a poor Jud=E9o-Musulmano-Christian French guy, who still believ=
e
in the reality of "la lutte des classes". who works with few laboratory
in a very big MMORPG project, and who is afraid by the syndrome of the
"Novice Sorcerer", "l'aprenti sorcier" in French.


St=E9phane Garin

A little frog with a big mouth who try to speak (and learn) English in
an Old wisdom Monkey discussion.

P.S. :
Otherwise:

> Raph Koster a =E9crit :

> =85Sega was going to try it in a big way with LEDOs a while back, and
others have
> taken whacks at it.

I'm Looking for the cost of using "Ledos" license (gnerk, gnerk) but
impossible to find the company. I try many search but all carry out an
error : postlinear.com doesn't exist any more.  Is there somebody who
get some information about this license?

> Verant's approach is to attempt to remove the things that are valued
more
>than in-game rules, thus making the in-game rules paramount. This is,
IMHO,

What means IMHO?

> impossible, but it may be feasible to do it to the point where it
ceases
> being much of an admin issue.


See you soon in :
Declaration of the Rights of Avatars





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