[MUD-Dev] Fanfic (Or: Why we can't all get along)

[Brian 'Psychochild' Green]

<<EdNote: This was broadcast previously, but my logs show it only
going to a fraction of the subscriber base>>

(Resend of possible missing post)

I've missed MUD-Dev.  I've also been slack on my rants.  Time to get the
fires burning again.  Allow me to provide some napalm.

I've been mulling over the uproar over Mystere's fan fiction.  The whole
mess of banning, statements, backpedaling and damage control provided a
lot of fodder for thought.  Although there's been quite a bit said about
this topic on various rant sites, I think a professional treatment might
be in order.

To clarify before the flaming begins, I realize that the Verant/Sony
situation has a lot of "hidden" complexity.  Things are a bit more
complex for them than what this rant/essay will make it seem.  My
musings will cover what could happen in an ideal situation.

To start, I can sympathize with the desire to protect intellectual
("IP").  I may wax philosophical when talking about the online medium,
but the creative side of me realizes the value in IP.  We spend
considerable time and effort making an internally consistent story with
all sorts of interesting twists and turns.  When someone takes that hard
work and twists it in unacceptable ways (especially if it's just to make
a quick buck), it can really be upsetting.

But let's look at why we make these games in the first place.  Why do
the professionals on this list prefer making multiplayer online games
over traditional single player games?  Why do hobbyists create MUDs
instead of Interactive Fiction?  Why is the market for online games
growing so rapidly?  It's the community.

Yet, IRC has community; why not just host an IRC channel?  Because, as
Raph so correctly states, we want to "touch people."  In cold business
terms, we want to provide substance behind that community so that people
will pay us instead of logging onto an IRC server.  We want to entertain
our players, to tell them a moving story, to put them in a world so
vivid they have no choice but to explore and have fun.  In short, we
want to immerse the players in our worlds.

So, we bring players to our games and show them our wonderful stories. 
We encourage them to learn the names of our NPCs, to take note of the
gods in our fantasy lands, to put life into a character and add life to
our games.  The players use our IP to play the game and have fun.  Yet,
when players enjoy our world so much that they wish to write about their
character outside of the confines our world, we rebuke them?

Something is not right here.

This argument seems familiar.  Ah, the old specter about ownership of
the game appears again.  Once players populate the game, who really owns
the game?  Unfortunately, all this wrinkle does is complicate matters.

Really, Mystere's fanfic proved that Verant had done its job.  They made
the player care about the world so much, to want his characters to be a
living part of a living world that he went through the effort to create
a coherent, interesting, and entertaining backstory for his characters. 
Unfortunately, that backstory seemed to have been unacceptable to
Verant/Sony for one reason or another.

(NB: I am not a lawyer.)  I can accept the reasoning of wanting to
protect ones IP, but I think it's important to remember that copyright
holders do not lose their copyright if they fail to enforce copyright. 
Many copyright holders will ignore (or even encourage!) "violations" of
their copyright by fans.  Enthusiasm for your work is always
encouraging.

"But, Mystere's story was sexually explicit and/or violent and therefore
inappropriate for children!" the crowd cries.  I enter this argument
with a bit of hesitation.  This is undoubtedly the thorniest aspect of
the issue.

To best contemplate this we have to remember what a community is: it's a
group of people that are together for a common cause.  Perhaps it's to
discuss some obscure topic.  Perhaps it's to get together and play a
game.  Perhaps it's just to hang out and be social.  But, there is
almost always some common link between all the members of the community.

So what happens when your community is built on appealing to as wide an
audience as possible?  You eventually get groups that cannot get along
with each other.  It's the classic PK vs. RP debate.  Now, we see that
we also have the politically volatile mixture of adults with mature
tastes and children that legally need to be protected.

When you restrain expression, you potentially damage the feelings of
ownership that players have for the game.  Without this feeling of
ownership, you reduce the investment people have in the community, which
in turn weakens the community.  As you allow more expression, you deepen
the players' investment into the game at the expense of people who
disagree or are potentially harmed by such expression.  When you
eliminate the unique elements, it is harder to differentiate your
community from others.  "Enforced mediocrity" is the phrase often used.

Unfortunately, there has been little deep discussion of the impact on
the players at large.  Let's visit my earlier defense of IP.  If you
create an interesting character, give it the spark of life and have
chronicle its adventures, should you not be rewarded for your effort
into making that character?  Shouldn't I be allowed to create derivative
works with that character and be able to describe him or her within the
world he or she inhabits?  While many companies think this applies to
their works, they do not extend the same courtesy to the characters
lovingly crafted and given life by their players.  Where would online
games be without the IP provided by the players?

Seems a bit contradictory, does it not?

Comments welcomed.  Encouraged, even.

--
"And I now wait / to shake the hand of fate...."  -"Defender", Manowar
     Brian Green, brian at psychochild.org  aka  Psychochild
       |\      _,,,---,,_      *=* Morpheus, my kitten, says "Hi!" *=*
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   "They're not bugs, they're 'place-
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'    holders for code that works.'"
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)         - Andrew Kirmse, Meridian 59 creator

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