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

[Shakkar]

----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Turner <christ at rd.bbc.co.uk>
To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2000 8:13 AM
Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Bay Area Press re: UO, the good the bad and the Ugly.


>
> 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.

I once had a player like this.  He told us matter-of-factly one day that he
really *was* a vampire, (obviously we had been playing a vampire campaign)
despite the fact he was sitting in broad daylight next to an unshuttered
window.   Such a player obviously needs help, and at least in this case he
had real life friends and GM right there to recognize it.  You don't have
that capability in the online games.   We eventually convinced him he wasn't
a vampire and got him some help.  You can't do this in your games.  But you
can make games that don't encourage people to obsess.

> 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.

That is a compelling game, and I've done the same thing.  But did the game
really *require* you stay at the computer all night to finish that level?
Here is where I think socially conscious game designers can make a
difference.  And I'd think most of you here are socially conscious, after
all you spend time here discussing virtual communities and the dynamics of
social interaction all the time.

Shakkar

Give me immortality or give me death.






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