[MUD-Dev] UO rants

[John Buehler]

> Dan Merillat
> Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 2:26 PM

> "John Buehler" writes:
> > Oh, you're talking about the lack of conscience in player characters.  No
> > argument there.  This is why I believe that the network anonymity problem
> > needs to be addressed.  Letting people into an environment that simulates
> > reality without any aspect of responsibility is a very dangerous
> thing.  It
> > only gets worse as the fidelity of the environment keeps improving.
>
> Now you're understanding.  A person who's "become a member of the community"
> has done so by giving other people ties to his RL person.   It's rare to
> have a long-time member of the community that nobody even knows what country
> they live in.   Again, solving the anonymity (in a non-abusable way!)  will
> help.

Huh?  We agree that eliminating anonymity has value, but we're talking about
two rather different results.  I claim that it is needed so that players do
not have an environment in which they can be irresponsible.  You claim that it
is needed in order to ultimately foster community.

My assertion that anonymity needs to be eliminated regards only the game
service provider.  The game service provider is responsible for administering
the game, ensuring a level of quality, and generally watching what's going on.
I think of these things as the equivalent of a theme park.  Customers pay
money for an experience, and it's up to the park staff to ensure that they
customers get that experience.  In order to ensure that no given player will
become a grief player, the park staff has to know who is actually who.  If a
player tells the park staff that character such-and-such harrassed him
verbally, the park staff know who the player is that runs that character.
They can then take actions with that player.  Players in the game world should
not know who the various players are behind the characters that they
encounter.

The only points of anonymity that should be broken between players is
approximate demographic information.  The age of the player should be
obtainable so that interactions with that player can be adjusted
appropriately.  There may be others.  Another obvious candidate would be sex
of the player, but I suspect that would produce opportunities for harrassment
and little else.

To return to the topic of community...

Community takes place when one individual identifies with a characteristic in
another individual.  This 'identification' might be entirely straightforward
(e.g. he's like me because he has the same characteristic) or more obtuse
(e.g. he's like me because we have characteristics that are atypical).  The
fascinating element of these games and community is that it's not clear how a
player identifies with personal traits versus the fantasy elements of their
character.  I suspect that the younger players have an easier time identifying
with their character than do those of us who have a rather more staid and
stolid, formed identity in the real world.  Younger players are still working
on their identity (one of the reasons I'm so nervous having kids in an
environment where conventional consequences are not in effect).

If a player can strongly identify with their character's traits, then when
they find another character in the game world that they can identify with,
they can have a sense of in-game community.  If a player doesn't strongly
identify with their character's traits, then that same scenario doesn't
produce much in the way of in-game community for them.

Your observations about anonymity seem to fall into the category of players
who less strongly identify with their character's traits.  For you, community
means identifying with the actual player, not the online persona presented by
the game.  For what it's worth, I'm the same way.  But the fact that people
can view the player/character balance in different ways could easily
contribute to why 'community' discussions seem to vary so wildly.

JB





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