[MUD-Dev] \"An essay on d00dism and the MMORPG\"

[birgit.schulte at philips.com]

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Original message: http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/2000Q4/msg00250.php

On Sun, 26 Nov 2000 19:38:06 -0800 (PST)
Marian Griffith <gryphon at iaehv.nl> wrote:

> ... These people may not 'get' the social aspect of
> the game, but the do 'get the game' quite nicely. Rather than seeing
> them as a 'force of nature' that should be tormented out of the game
> we, as game designers, should perhaps give them some hooks to create
> rudimentary social skills.  They get enough tormenting in real life,
> that the mud is an essential escape for them.

Do you have any proposal as to the possible nature of those hooks?

I fear providing them would require a lot of effort, and I for my part 
would rather spend my time increasing the enjoyment of the game for the 
average player, instead of turning it into a kind of psychologic therapy
for socially disabled people. 
And even if it could be done with feasible effort, wouldn't it by chance 
draw even more of those problem players? Which would further decrease the
enjoyment for the rest of the playerbase, since I doubt that every 
problem-guy would answer nicely to the offered hooks and turn into a nice-guy.

As to the essay itself, the theory about d00ds aka "genetic algorithms"
is interesting, but I found it somewhat dissapointing solution-wise. 
All it basically says is: 

- Players, keep away from the kewl d00ds, as you can't do a thing about them.
  (Which doesn't really help, especially not when applied to the scenario
   given at the beginning of the essay)

- Admins, try to use the d00ds to find the loopholes in your code, and to
  fix them, but do not nerf the game in the process.

The latter is basically a good idea, only it will also not really help to
mollify the d00d-plagued admin, who doesn't see a chance to keep the game 
fair without nerfing it. The question remains, how to design a game for the 
average player (who doesn't have unlimited time and the need to find every 
exploitable bug) without creating an easy playground for the problem type at
the same time?

Birgit
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