[MUD-Dev] PvP Systems

[Jon Lambert]

John Buehler wrote:
> Jon Lambert writes:
 
>> Like I said above this is an entirely different animal.  When RPing
>> players outnumber GOPing players 10-1, then you a have framework
>> for RP.  The number of NPCs is irrelavent, because NPCs can't
>> role-play, unless of course a player or GM is running them.  ;-)

> The number of NPCs is relevant in that it establishes a setting,
> just as the buildings, buckets, horses and other items establish a
> setting.  There are no laser guns or automobiles, so people don't
> think in those terms.  With enough NPCs doing things that establish
> the setting, the players are encouraged to behave in a given way.

Those are just props.  They aren't necessary to role-play.  And they
often distract from role-play.  They spoil scenes because they
introduce actions, events and dialogue that just isn't wanted or
appropriate.
 
> NPCs roleplay very well.  They simply don't speak to players very
> intelligently.  Something that will be addressed someday, but not
> this decade.

You can get a baker to bake, run about shopping for flour, talk about
baking, sell bread, but you cannot get them to roleplay.  I mentioned
in my previous post that functional or immersive roleplay only
represents _one_ end of the roleplay spectrum.  There is a large
audience of role- players that views dialogue with NPCs as a patent
waste of keystrokes and time.  Unless of course there is a human
audience present, it serves no purpose.  It's sort of like tickling
yourself.  Unsatisfying. ;-)

> Not very much effort has gone into the NPCs of the big graphical
> games.  They merely serve a functional purpose, encouraging only
> goal-oriented gaming.  Ever played Caesar III?  The NPCs there are
> fairly simplistic, but they are quite entertaining and produce the
> atmosphere of a roman city.

Even so in a mud, these "smart" NPCs become little side-quests of
guess the magic words to activate them and get what you want.  That's
an additional level of game that rewards the GOPer, it doesn't do
anything for the RPer.  RPers need audiences of humans not bots.
There's a difference.  You see, this is forcing players to react to
the world.  You are casting the roles...not players.  The other way is
allowing the players to create the roles and character.

> Imagine, in contrast, a town with only players in it.  Nobody
> establishes the atmosphere of the town, so it becomes whatever the
> players say it is.

The only reason there isn't an atmosphere established in such a town
is simply because you are starting from a base of game players.  Start
with role-players and you'll get an atmosphere.

You can force these players to dress up in fancy medieval clothes, put
them in a medieval town, force them to say good day, thee and thou and
other magic words to make the little robots wandering around do
unusual things.  You still won't get them to role-play.  You just get
mice in your maze looking for cheese in funny outfits and saying
strange things because the cheese happens to be easier to come by that
way.

> And there's no guarantee that such an atmosphere is entertaining for
> anybody.  The atmosphere certainly isn't set by the game, letting
> the players know what the game world normally expects from them.

Of course not.  But the purpose of role-play is to entertain other
players.  It requires 2 or more humans, not a human and a machine.
Now a game where the vasy majority of players _are_ role-players is
almost guaranteed to be entertaining and atmospheric regardless of the
presence of props.

The functional/immersive style of roleplay is well illustrated by
Armageddon and Threshold, and is done pretty well there.  :-) The
other styles are not represented on this list.  The best way to
illustrate these other styles is to go out and play those games, Cajun
Nights, Chiba City, Children of the Moon, OtherSpace, etc.  There are
dozens more.

--
--* Jon A. Lambert - TychoMUD        Email:jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com *--
--* Mud Server Developer's Page <http://tychomud.home.netcom.com> *--
--* If I had known it was harmless, I would have killed it myself.*--

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