[MUD-Dev] Self-Sufficient Worlds

[Sellers]

Chad Arnold wrote:
>At 11:22 AM 4/26/00 +0100, Chris Lloyd wrote:
>>In a perfect MUD, the entire world is run by the PCs. Cities, guilds ,
clans
>>and so on are all determined by the players.

>Is this really achievable or desirable? Mr. Lloyd seems to think that
>this is obviously so, but I don't see it at all.


> Isn't this what the upcoming MMORPG, Dark Zion is trying to accomplish?
> Here is a snippet from the official press release available at
www.darkzion.com:

> "Dark Zion is a player driven world: players will explore, build cities,
> create clans and governments, wage wars, breed insects, and discover the
> lost secrets of the world of Dark Zion as they create a story of their new
> civilization."
> 
> I may be wrong, so if I am feel free to correct me. But from what I've
read
> thus far it seems that the MMORPG will be highly PC oriented. Player ran
> economy, government, etc. and no NPCs whatsoever.

Depending on how far they take this, I think it fits pretty squarely into
the "cool simulation, bad game idea" camp.

So: you open a shop.  There are no NPCs, so you have to stand there and man
it yourself.  Fun.  

And then, a local gang rides into town and declares that since you looked at
one of them wrong, they are not going to let anyone into your shop.  Or they
just burn it down, and leave or dump their characters before the PC-run
police (who presumably have great forensic tools painstakingly designed into
the game) can arrive.  

Or less dramatically, a bunch of the locals get together and decide they
just won't patronize your business.  Or a really rich guy opens a shop just
like yours right next to yours and, just for grins, decides to undercut
every one of your prices by 50%.  

So your shop goes out of business through no fault of your own and through
nothing you could control, and you had loads of fun watching it wither, and
doubtless watching a ghosttown of similarly failed businesses grow around
you.  Sign me up!  

Scenarios like this are easy to play out in any economic situation, and they
get grostesque in governmental situations.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge
fan of player-run economies and governmental systems.  But the magnitude of
the problems involved is enormous -- and saying "oooh, no NPCs!" just makes
it that much more difficult.  

Mike Sellers



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