[MUD-Dev] Bay Area Press re: UO, the good the bad and the Ugly.

[Chris Turner]

On Fri, 2 Jun 2000, PLAGNAL XAVIER wrote:

> From: "F. Randall Farmer" <randy at communities.com>
> 
> > Perhaps we should open a new thread about RL social conciousness in
> > multiuser system design:
> >  "Should our software periodically tell Timmy that he should go out and
> play
> > for awhile?" :-)
> 
> The problem was the same with paper RPGs, remember the polemic when some
> AD&D players killed themselves because their caracters was under a curse.
> When you are a RPGs player and you heard that, you feal really bad.
> Not because you think that could happened to you, but just because there is
> some stupid people who will think that all RPG players are completly insane.
> RPGs are still alive, hopefully, and I hope there will not be laws agains
> Online Games.

My tabletop ref would put the blame for this soley at the feet of their ref. 
He believes that it's his job to make sure that at the end of every session,
that everyone knows it's just a game and that they aren't their characters
etc...  If you can't "de-role", he won't let you back in because you
obviously can't cope with RPGing.  He basically sees it as his responsiblity
to make sure we don't go off the rails like the above example - especially
as some of his games do contain quite adult material.

So far, I've only seen him have problems with one person - that guy really
did need his head examined.  He's character got killed by an NPC, but he
targeted all his anger & agression at the ref (who was controlling the NPC)
- he just couldn't see that the ref wasn't the NPC.  He started sending
obnoxious emails to the ref, but I believe the ref managed to calm him down.

> Our role is to create the best game ever made, the role of the customers is
> to enjoy it.
> Playing a game and enjoying it is not a crime, for me it is like tasting
> goose liver paste, in too big quantity you will get sick.
> And on the goose liver paste there is no sticker saying "Eating more than
> 200g of this product could cause an attack of indigestion ".

That is cos it's seen as common sense.  If you do eat too much, the ill
effects will hopefully outweight the nice effects and you won't do it again. 

Unfortunately you will get people who become addicted to your game if it is
good or has features that they enjoy.  Who amongst us hasn't played a game
that has kept us up to the small hours of the morning whilst we tried to
just complete that next puzzle/level/mission/etc.  Despite the fact that
the following morning we feel dead due to lack of sleep, we still repeat the
process.

The point at which I usually stop playing a game, is when it gets boring or
I finish it.  Stock muds(DIKU/LP/etc) usually have a fixed goal - that of
level advancement - but your character can only advance so many levels. 
Once you've reached the top there isn't really anything left to do except go
and find another mud to play on.

But one of the things we're striving for is a game that is constantly
evolving and adapting around the players.  It doesn't get boring because the
game is always changing - there are new things to find out, new goals to
achieve.  This kind of problem is going to get a lot worse.

Chris
--
christ at rd.bbc.co.uk   #include <stddisclaimer.h>   http://www.fysh.org/~maddy

   "So this is really me? A no-style gimbo with teeth druids could use as a
       place of worship" - Duaine Dibley (Red Dwarf - "Back to Reality")




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