[MUD-Dev] (no subject)

[J C Lawrence]

/. has been running a (vapid) piece on some of the other values in
computer gaming:

  http://slashdot.org/features/00/06/04/1432242.shtml

A couple of the responses are interesting.

  Re:formulaic? (Score:1)
  by DrSkwid (drskwid at yahoo-co-uk) on Wednesday June 07, @11:19AM EDT (#66)
  (User Info) http://www.hardlight.couk.com

      massive multilpayer games IMHO seem to be creating their own stories. 

      I'm an Everquest player and although the tasks set for players
      are kind of linear it's the players themselves that make the
      narrative. The outcome of many interactions of human
      intellects makes the story out of what happens.

      We (eq players) truly adventure in a fantasy world. We have
      tales to tell and many memories.  Anyone who's been to Neriak
      can remember what it was like to walk in there. The adrenalin
      pumping hoping you won't be summoned by Vox to face the
      bears. Put four eq players together in a room and they'll talk
      for hours about it. Much more than any amount of Jet Set Willy
      or Quake players.

      The MUD will take over almost entirely i think. It's a virtual
      world every e-commerce shopping mall can only dream of. If I
      could do my shopping in EQ, I would. It's what VRML promised
      and it's coming to a machine near you.

      Katz talks crap though and knows as much about computer games
      as my dog.

      .oO0Oo.
      Politics is life. Vote with your self. 

  Honor (Score:3, Insightful)
  by Spiff28 (spiff at icdc.com) on Wednesday June 07, @11:07AM EDT (#50)
  (User Info) http://www.fep2.org/~spiff/

      The most appealing aspect about online gaming to me, is the
      chance to actually have a sort of honor you'd never get in
      real life. It's difficult to explain it, but honor in gaming
      is an ideal that's not uncommon amongst my friends.

      Honor doesn't take much, other than true skill. It's teaching
      the cheating bastard a lesson. It's taking on the guy
      attempting to rape the newbie as opposed to the newbie. It's
      sticking for the ideals of "That's just not fair, it's not
      right."

      You're not often going to get the chance to do it in real
      life, I'd wager. I mean.. if you're truly pious and good
      you'll stick up for what's right. You'll probably get the shit
      kicked out of you a number of times too. As much as we'd like
      to be truly honorable all the time, we also have this thing
      about saving our own asses sometimes.

      Online gaming culture has the chance to be different from
      this, to actually have some honor in it.  Sadly this doesn't
      seem to be happening. More people become obsessed with being
      Ultimate Rambo, or winning at all costs, or taking down the
      easy ones. Online gaming is becoming more popular. I hate to
      sound nostalgic, but I'm dead sure the two are linked.

      Anyway, I guess my point is online gaming appeals to me
      because I have the chance to cultivate a (albeit small)
      culture akin to Arthur's Knights. Sounds stupid, but feels
      cool. Whatever keeps me happy?...

      -- Computers do stupid things really fast. I'm not as fast.

--
J C Lawrence                              Internet: claw at kanga.nu
----------(*)                            Internet: coder at kanga.nu
...Honorary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...


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