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

[Jeff Freeman]

At 09:13 PM 11/28/00 -0500, Michael "Talien" Tresca wrote:
>If a D00D can solo his way to success, accumulating power and ultimately
>becoming a threat to the game independent of the disapproval of his social
>peers, it may be the game, not the D00D, that's the problem.

On Ackadia the players are forced to pick a "home town" in order to do
train, work or shop.  All the people with that same home town elect a
mayor, and the mayor has the ability to ban people from the town.

The towns themselves are constantly being invaded by aggressive mobs -
that's just the way the spawner works - the critters fill-up the nearest
dungeon, spill-out into the wilderness around it, then begin spawning in town.

So every player - no matter what type of character they want - has to join
a community somewhere, and they have to work together with the other
members of their community in order to advance their character (or even
just maintain their character's skills, as far as that goes).  They have to
keep their town open and clear of mobs, or else no one will be able to
work, train or shop there.

If they like "playing solo", that's fine - they can go hunting solo, etc.
But ultimately even the lone wolf belongs to some group, some where, and
they'll expect/need his help from time to time to keep their community safe.

Additionally, each skill can only be trained to max in one particular town
- so no matter how friendly you are with your community, you also have to
be on good terms with all the other communities too (or at the very least,
the other communities that can train the skills you've chosen for your
character).  Also some communities just aren't large enough to keep their
own towns free and clear - they require the assistance of more powerful
allies in order to accomplish that.

People can join the town militia and town milita's are allowed to fight
each other without penalty (without any systematic penalty, anyway).  They
can conquer one another's towns, etc.

Also there's death: Skill loss on every death, so you can't just max out
your character and blow off being welcome in towns.  And eventually
permanent death if you die without getting resurrected by another player
too many times - so the more friends you have, the longer you will live.

The d00dish names, we just haven't seen.  Might be a function of the
application process, though.  Occassionally I make a character with a
stupid name just to see what happens.  A few minutes into the game with the
name GEEDO and I start getting notifications that I'm banned from this,
that and the other town (all-caps for a name is against "The Rules" -
though that isn't a rule I made, it is one the players have made and
enforced).

We've had a couple of PKs.  They got one or two victims each before being
essentially tossed from the game - the other players blocked their
character advancement by banning them from all the towns, even their own
(which they conquered), and spent their time hunting for them until one PK
decided to quit, and the other decided he'd rather be social.

It's been successful to the point of being boring.  There's almost no PvP
at all (when there is PvP, it's serious business - not something that's
done "just for fun").

But what I like about it is:  a) I don't have to babysit the players.  b)
There aren't any d00ds.  c) There aren't any TFR's, either.

On the down side, some players have quit because there's not enough PvP to
keep them entertained, and they joined the game thinking it would be
PvP-oriented.


--
  http://home.swbell.net/skeptack/

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