[MUD-Dev] Anarchy Online (was Community Feeling)

[Dave Rickey]

-----Original Message-----
From: Hanz, Rob <rhanz at verant.com>

> This brings up an interesting point, and one of my pet peeves with
> the "Bartle Types" in general (short version: I don't think you
> can truly understand the Bartle types without having played
> MUDII).

You can't properly understand what Richard Bartle was writing about,
but that doesn't mean you can't understand the concepts
(potentially, better than someone too intimately familiar with the
background).
 
> Is it possible that instead of 'killer', the appropriate label for
> that category should be 'competitor'?  This would give us a nice
> grid with the axes being 'cooperation - competition' and 'people -
> game'.  It would also perhaps open up our thoughts as to how to
> occupy competitors without having to invoke PvP - which is
> arguably the most destructive form of competition (since it forces
> unwilling players into that playstyle in most cases).

I prefer the term "Controller" myself.  Everybody in these games
competes (even Socializers are in a non-zero-sum competition of
sorts, to be more popular and better liked).  What's been identified
as the "killer" segment is defined by their desire to excercise
*control* over other players, killing them is just the most obvious
(and intrusive) way they do so.  The most successful "Killers" are
not outcasts.  They are well-liked and popular (at least with their
membership) Guildmasters.  The classic "Dewd" grief-killer is to the
Killer segment what the "RP Nazi" is to the Socializer segment, an
intrusive and self-alienating fringe.

--Dave

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