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

[John Buehler]

> Vincent Archer writes:

> Names, notably in a MUD environment, fill two different purposes.
>
> The first is recognition. Even a graphical mud still lacks the
> details that
> our eye-brain complex use to provide instant recognition of
> people. Notably
> (in graphical environments) when they are a little distance away, and all
> the painstakingly malleable face details your FBI-style model can render
> have blurred in a batch of 8x12 pixels :)
>
> For recognition, a local (i.e. my own private) namespace works as
> well as a
> global namespace, subject to the same restriction: i.e. names
> must be unique
> within your namespace.
>
> The second is interaction. And there, use of local namespaces has a
> serious and deleterious effects.
>
> Main is the "worldview filter" effect. If I'm seeing that PC as "Jack",
> and my friend is seeing that PC as "Hank", how do we discuss the PC. The
> software has to provide translation, and be sure that, whenever I
> type Jack,
> it's the "Jack PC" I'm refererring to, and not having a discussion about
> the latest book by Jack Chalker. It quickly becomes too
> complicated to track,
> so I'm talking about Jack, and my friend has to keep in memory that I'm
> referring to the guy he knows as Hank. Ok, still following me?
>
> The other is a lack of "handles" for OOC effects. Most muds provide a way
> of OOC checking of friends, and direct contact. Without a uniform handle,
> it's hideously complex to have someone telling you "Did you know that
> our friend John has started a new character, XO", or even the simplest
> "I can't help you now, but contact Joe, he might be able to help".
>
> Fragmented namespaces might look good, but they're full of traps.

I don't see the traps.  Names are an indirection mechanism, and they have
been used extensively by programmers.  The base identification of a
character need not be its 'true' name.  Characters needn't HAVE true names.
They just have a numeric identification known only to the software.  What's
YOUR true name?  You are what you call yourself.  If we want to have 'true'
names for magical purposes, then we could add that in as well and then
nobody would ever hand their true name out, except to those who needed to
cast helpful spells on them.

If I refer to "Jack" and you know that PC as "Hank", then one or both of us
is being faked out by that player, which is a good thing.  The
conversational uses of names boil down to the same uses we have in the real
world.  If necessary, we start to use context: the guy that was using the
bow in the caves, or the gal who charged the gate of the castle at the end
of the battle, and so on.  I've postulated a description mechanism in order
to transfer identification information in-game as well.  I say /describe
"Jack" and you acquire an understanding of someone and you can name him
anything you like, such as "JB's Friend Jack".  Recognition in-game is then
based on the in-game transfer fidelity.  A skill, whatever.

The issue of OOC recognition is easily dealt with as well.  I don't even
have to name a character in order to refer to it.  If I click on an
obnoxious individual, I should be able to just do something like /report
this "Being obnoxious", and whoever I am currently indicating is reported
because I used the word 'this'.  If I say /report "Jack" "Being obnoxious",
then the translation of "Jack" is used.  The translation always boils down
to the raw character identification, which leads to a player
identification - frequently the ultimate goal of OOC issues.

If you start a new character, you have to either introduce that character
all over again, or the game offers a feature where certain game knowledge is
cloned between characters.  It is my opinion and belief that a good game
doesn't encourage players to create new characters, as EverQuest and
Asheron's Call, and any other class-based system does.  So, hopefully,
creating new characters is limited, thus the need for redoing all that
introduction stuff is unnecessary.

But if you DO start a new character and you want to track down your old
buddies, you just arrange to meet with them in the world and get
introductions started.

You also made mention of recognition at the beginning.  I'm not quite sure
why.  That's why the little floating name thing remains in the game, even
with an introduction system.  Your CHARACTER recognizes another character
and the little name pops up.  If your character doesn't recognize the other,
then no name appears, even if the PLAYER recognizes the character.  Or
thinks so.

JB


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