[MUD-Dev] UO rants

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Wed, 23 Aug 2000, John Buehler wrote:

> > Tess Lowe
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2000 8:06 PM
> 
> > > Being on the receiving end of a PvP encounter is never
> > > fun, and that's why I don't like PvP worlds.  In the end, only the most
> > > powerful players are able to enjoy the experience.  And those tend to be
> > > the hardcore gamers.  Like yourself.
> > 
> > I would take issue with that on the basis of my own personal experience.
> 
> I only have experience with Ultima Online, EverQuest and Asheron's Call.  The
> world of Acheae may have forces in effect that encourage players away from
> the phenomenon of PvPers (no restricted to PKers) that is so rampant in the
> big three.  It may well be that Acheae is just very lucky to have attracted
> the 'right' kind of players and that they play well together.

Oh man, no offence, but get out there and play some text muds (and I
don't mean Dikus or any other hack n' slash). The graphical games are
primitive design-wise in terms of PvP (I mean, EQ is just Diku with
graphics). They are using ideas that are well over a decade old in terms
of their PvP 'design.' If all you've played are those 3, it's no wonder
you're down on PvPers. 

 
> I'm pleased to hear that at least on a smaller scale, a game world can have
> relatively reasonable behavior from its players.

It's got a lot less to do with the size of the world than the design of
the world.

 
> > > I certainly think that those who shoot their mouth off should have some
> > > form of sanction applied to them.  Do you really believe that any sane
> > > government would condone execution for foul language?
> > 
> > In virtual worlds, foul language and verbal abuse is different to physical
> > attacks, in that it is almost always taken as an OOC (and therefore much
> > more personal and hurtful) attack. I therefore, as an admin, take immediate
> > action by muting them, treating it as an OOC offence.

Quite right, Tess.

 
> > It took me a while to realise it, but not everyone actually
> > *wants* to try to get along. There is a huge amount of sociopathic behaviour
> > in virtual worlds because you can walk away from them untouched.
> > They won't become microcosms of real life communities until the social
> > consequences are equal in both places. And thus I believe trying to derive a
> > fair justice system for a virtual community based on a real life sense of
> > justice is somewhat doomed to failure.
> 
> A 'real life sense of justice'?  Certainly the same checks and balances that
> we have in the real world will simply never be in place in the game world.
> But the phenomenon of a criminal life being undesireable for 99.99% of all
> players IS something that we can pursue, by whatever artificial means.  I
> just finished a post that has my current, and half-formed thoughts on how
> such a justice system might tackle thievery.  The mechanism is artificial
> and attempts to make normal interactions between characters possible, and
> to make those interactions which are actually criminal very very dangerous
> and ultimately unprofitable.

A 'criminal life' is meaningless unless you tell us what you mean by
crimes. If you mean, as I think, that crimes are those things which piss
off 99.99% of the playerbase, well, that goes without saying. The thing
is, what you think are crimes do not piss off 99.99% of the playerbase in
a game designed to accomodate those actions.


--matt
"He that is wounded in the testicles, or have his penis cut off, shall not
enter into the congregation of the Lord." Deuteronomy 23:1




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