[MUD-Dev] Persistent Worlds

[the_logos at www.achaea.com]

On Sun, 18 Feb 2001, Travis Casey wrote:

> the_logos at www.achaea.com wrote:
> > 
> > You're left speechless? *I'M* left speechless. You're telling me
> > that if you found a "hole" in the structure of reality that allowed
> > you to shortcut something (like the creation of wealth) you'd not
> > take advantage of it? Actually, I'm not really sure it is possible
> > to contemplate something in reality that is unreal, as if it was
> > unreal it couldn't be a part of reality. I wouldn't see it as any
> > different from using wind power to generate electricity.
> 
> This is a rather extreme point of view.  Many, if not most, game
> players see the game rules not as being the actual rules of the game
> reality, but as an approximation of them.  As an approximation, they
> can be flawed, and to deliberately take advantage of such flaws can
> then be considered cheating.

But I was referring to the physical, not virtual world, by way of
analogy. My point isn't to justify cheating, but to illustrate that it
might be just a tad ridiculous to punish players for things that are
the creator's fault. This won't stop me punishing players for what I
view as cheating of course, but I can fully understand why they would
do it. Same reason I'd put down and pick up $20 bills in the physical
world if I discovered a duping bug with them or whatnot.

> > Why in the name of God would you NOT do it? You're not really
> > hurting anyone if you don't produce enough to devalue the
> > currency. All you're doing is ensuring that you don't have to work
> > for a living anymore.
 
> Because I realize that the game is a game, with rules that are mere
> approximations of the game reality, and not a definition of the game
> reality.  Thus, a bug that allows a character to keep picking up $20
> over and over is a bug, and not something the character should
> *really* be able to do.  From my point of view, taking advantage of
> such a bug is simply cheating.

Again, I was talking about the physical world. I'd also argue that the
reality of a game is not something that can be argued about. If you
can do it, it's part of the game. There might be consequences for
those actions, but on a purely theoretical level, it strikes me as
completely unfair to make the players have to decide what the
creator's motivations are, and then to punish the player for the
sloppiness of the creator.

Again, having said all that, I'm not going to stop punishing people
whom I view are cheating (though we get almost no cheating that I know
of and never really have).

--matt

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