[MUD-Dev] Something in the water

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

Matt Chatterley wrote:

> I'm working on a project where player advancement is entirely
> based on RP (its stricly a RP based game, admittedly). All players
> are able to vote for another player (once a week, but not for the
> person you voted last week). These votes, and submitted logs are
> used to hand out points which can be used for character
> advancement (training, which is also Roleplayed, with coded
> support systems).

Although this might work for less RP inclined players, i.e. you
might be able to turn some non-RPers into RP, I somehow doubt that
"true" RPers would be motivated by points or scoring systems at all.
Because, for the "true" RPer, gratification is in instant
make-believe, or even _annoying_ other players with your invented
personality.

Won't scoring systems just encourage populist "surface" RP and
discourage deep one-on-one personality immersion and conflicts?
Well, I guess it could turn off those pesky OOC people and that
would be an improvement, but there is the danger that you will get
less drama if players try to kiss eachother's asses too much too
often.

I would personally be turned off by scoring.  I prefer weird
characters and dislike being formally rated for "artistic"
performance by average-joe.  The only thing that would motivate me
is other players that accept the role/drama/situation I am
projecting and who are playing up to it by creating new
opportunities for a story to develop.  Whether they think that I am
RPing or not is less important.  Actually, if I am doing it really
well they would think that the character is me and that I am just a
truly disgusting and mentally ill person that ought to be site
banned.  RP at its best is when fiction and reality become blurry
and you ask yourself "what the hell is really going on here?".

Such psychological experiments can become really nasty at times
(when people fall in love with your seductive, but cruel character
for instance).  So I don't think I would score very high on such a
system anyway.  *evil grin*

(I also dislike the idea that other players are using me in order to
get scorepoints rather than believing in my roleplay)

--
Ola  -  http://www.notam.uio.no/~olagr/
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