Reality vs Fantasy (was Re: [MUD-Dev] Law of Resource Congestion)

[Mordengaard]

From: "Matthew Mihaly" <the_logos at achaea.com>
> On Thu, 17 Aug 2000, Nathan F. Yospe wrote:
>
> > Matthew Mihaly <the_logos at achaea.com> said:
<snippage>
> > > But again, so what if lava and rust would mess it up in reality? Muds
are
> > > not reality. (Granted, I realize that you, Nathan, try to simulate
> > > reality, but I must respectfully question whether a mud that attempts
to
> > > simulate reality as strictly as you seem to want to will ever get any
> > > significant playerbase.)
> >
> > I doubt you're right.  So long as Vernor Vinge, Jerry Pournelle, David
> > Drake, and other such writers have a following, my type of mud does too.
> >
> > Besides, have you seen the anticipation around Halo?  I rest my case.
>
> Is your mud a graphical game? If not, the comparison is not apt. A
> baseball simulation in graphics is fun. In text, it's just pants. Text
> cannot do some things that graphics can do, and vice-versa, at least in my
> experience.

This might go through late, my ISP is acting "funny" atm... I'm not laughing
though :p

I've been going through my old roleplaying books in the last week or so, and
I've come across a phrase I'd like to share; Suspension of Disbelief.  Now
I'm sure this is old hat to most of the more *ahem* vocal members of this
list, but for the lurkers, here's a synopsis.  The basic idea is that people
like the familiar, and they know how things work.  If they drop a stone,
they expect it to drop to the floor.  If they run Boffo through with a sharp
pointy weapon, Boffo should bleed profusely and die if he doesn't get
medical attention.  The more things that are familiar, the easier it is to
suspend their disbelief when you introduce the fantasy element.  Basically,
it's about how much fantasy you can handle before you start climbing the
walls and gibbering.  If you create a game that's too different from
reality, no-one except the most dedicated will "get" what's going on.  The
difficult part (imho) is getting the correct mix of fantasy and reality.
I've known people get confused by the sun rising in the west.  I've also
seen players accept (or maybe ignore?) the most outrageous shredding of
reality.  Aim between the two, and you should be okay.

Mordengaard (had a point to make somewhere in there), Yhared MUD





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