[MUD-Dev] Persistent Worlds

[J C Lawrence]

On Sat, 17 Feb 2001 16:15:32 -0800 
John Buehler <johnbue at msn.com> wrote:

> J C Lawrence writes:

> If all the roleplayers out there can insist that a MUD can
> encourage everyone to roleplay, then I can insist that a MUD can
> encourage everyone to conserve natural resources.  

I'm not aware that any RP'ers are saying that a MUD can
(effectively) encourage roleplaying without also having a fascist
administration.

> I'd rather fight the good fight there than accept that spontaneous
> generation is the way to go.

I think you're targetting a symptom (spontaneous generation) rather
than a cause.  Spontaneous generation is just a short circuited form
of world instantiation, and environment shorthand if you wish that
the players and the designers both tacitly understand.  It generally
works under the assumption that "how the NPC got here" is much less
interesting than the fact that he is here.  As for the Tragedy of
The Commons approach. and means of dealing with it in a player
behaviour modifying way, yes, that is very interesting.

Raph has made a number of posts on the various lessons they learnt
and observed with UO and their attempted ecologies there (It was the
English acorn eating pigs and the sheep herders all over again) as
did Chip and Randy in their early Palace documents.  Raph in
particular observed the general rule of (paraphrased):

  If I can spend time at it I must be rewarded for it.

Players often don't like the fact that they can spend all day
knitting or fishing and then not be able to sell their wares for a
profit (why did you implement it if it isn't rewarding?), and,
rather than this persuading them to establish markets etc. it tends
to persuade them to find another game to play run by people who did
make "everything rewarding".  (I'm glossing over a lot here, and
painting things gairshly in hopes that Raph will chime in with the
actual niceties).  The insensate requirement for immediate and
reliable gratification in entertainment is a powerful thing, and one
well established by our current marketing economy.  The only
effective approach I've seen is to aggressively discard those
sectors of the population from your audience -- but it tends toward
baby-with-the-bathwater.

--
J C Lawrence                                       claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                          http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/
--=| A man is as sane as he is dangerous to his environment |=--
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