[MUD-Dev] Real Life Consequences

[Marian Griffith]

In <URL:/archives/meow?group+local.muddev> on Sun 18 Feb, Corey Crawford wrote:

> Everyone seems to have skipped over Scion's message, so I'm starting
> a new thread here, because I think it touches upon an important
> topic..

It has been discussed before,  but that does not matter, because it is an
important topic, and new insights are definitely welcome. The topic tends
to dissolve into a 'what is a grief-player' for some reason.

>> All that in mind, I think the increased number of troublemakers on
>> MUDs in comparison to those at theme parks is due to the internet's
>> inability to impose real life consequences, and not to the level of
>> immersion provided by the means of amusement.

> Just sitting here and pondering about this issue, I see that Scion
> is right.  Because the player has no real consequences because of
> his/her harmful actions, they will continue to do so; either in the
> same place or else where.

It is not quite that simple, in that this is the only reason why there
are more troublemakers online.  Anonimity is one other reason, and a
much lower treshold to entrance . You can 'enter' a mud simply by
switching on your computer and point your web browser in the right
direction, as com- pared to a themepark that requires several hours,
or even days, worth of travel. The lack of sanctions is not
-encouraging- a player to start with this type of behaviour, but it
does encourage them to -continue- with it.  Without any real facts to
back this up, I suspect that there are very few determined
troublemakers.  Most do so either to see what happens, or be- cause it
happened accidentally, and they liked the sense of power they got from
getting the entire mud in a stir.

> My question is, has anyone ever thought of - instead of banning,
> deleting, shrubing, whatever'ing - fining a player for grievances
> against the game?  I'm talking charging real life money (via credit
> card, most likely) because of rules broken.

I suppose it would be possible, though very difficult to enforce given
an international playerbase.

> What kind of legal implications would this have?

My guess is that you would be on shaky ground. The best you could hope
to achieve is sueing a player and hope that the shock effect frightens
other would be grief-players into leaving or minding their ways.  The
costs in- volved in going to court would almost certainly outweigh the
fine, and I am not too certain you would actually win such a
case. Besides, you would still have to deal with foreign customers.
What you -could- try for was making players pay a 'bond' up front that
is only returned when they leave the game (i.e. delete their
character) and there are no major complaints agaist them.  I do not
think many potential players will agree with that though.

> Obviously this wouldn't work for a non-profit MUD, but it'd be
> interesting to see how many people exploit the next EQ bug if all
> the previous exploiters were fined $100 per incident.

Well, they probably could, rightfully, argue that they should not be
fin- ed for usage of malfunctioning software.  You would also leave
yourself wide open for a counter lawsuit about the state of your
software or game.


Personally I think that in dealing with grief players you should treat
them as four year olds.  Not because they are mentally that age, but
be- cause they exhibit much the same character as little children.
They are extremely self-centered, with the exclusion of every other
consideration and they are challenged by the word 'no' to attempt it
all the more.  The best way to handle them is either by locking them
up (which is obviously an impractical approach given the realities of
internet), or by ridiculi- sing those who overstep their bounds.  Same
as with little children, you do not try to argue with them (they are
not interested).  You explain the rules, and when someone breaks them
you either punish, or you shame them before their peers so they do not
-want- to do so again.  With children you generally do so through
parental disapproval. This will of course not work on a mud, but the
mud equivalent of a funny looking hat and the word dumb on a sign
around your neck would work quite well I suspect. Not that I recommend
the usage of this against -real- children! The experience can be quite
traumatic, but I have less pity for those who know better but chose to
act childish.


Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey

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