[MUD-Dev] Re: PvP systems

[John Buehler]

Greg Miller writes:

> I'm not saying I want a dangerous world. I want a world where I
> don't have to deal with odd admin rules interpretations, admin
> whims, and the irritating wait to have some employee come fix my
> problem for me in those inevitable cases where another player
> causes me trouble.

I guess I haven't faced the issues of waiting on game employees to
solve game world problems as much as you have.  My only seriously
dissatisfying treatment at the hands of another player was being
PK'd several times in Ultima Online.  Normally, I'll try to deal
with my dissatisfaction by interacting with a problem player myself.
But in the case of Ultima Online, PKing was a fact of life.  As a
result, I voted with my feet.

> I want the ability to apply negative reinforcement in the face of
> inappropriate behavior.

And if the antagonist is more powerful than you are?

I'm assuming that most of these antagonists are children.  Beating
on a kid doesn't teach them anything except that you have to be
stronger than the next guy in order to be right.  "Might makes
right", etc.  Retribution is a no-win treatment of an ugly problem,
which is why I usually don't attempt to include it in my systems.
The flag system post makes mention of the ability to have some kind
of limited response, and even that makes me nervous.  The goal of
limited response is that the game establishes what is a permitted
response for a given conflict action.  Relying on limited response
almost requires the existence of a justice system to impose
penalties.  The purpose of a justice system is that only certain
individuals in society inflict punishments.  Retribution is the
opposite of this.  It results in emotion and emotion can be a tough
thing to control.  A justice system introduces process and requires
everyone to use their brain instead of their hormones.

Verbal harrassment has no real practical response except to return
the verbal harrassment.  Which only makes the victim look foolish
for being baited into acting like the imbecilic instigator.

JB

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev