[MUD-Dev] Real Life Consequences

[msew]

At 00:51 02/18/2001 -0700, Corey Crawford wrote:

> 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.

> 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.

>What kind of legal implications would this have?

all bad?

> 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.

I WANT/CRAVE/LUST FOR/DESIRE/NEED the exploiters.  IMO they are one of
the most valuable tools you have for your game.

I want those guys trying to hack, cheat, steal, lie, break, exploit,
abuse every aspect of the game.  I want them there at 4am cackling
gleefully as they find the platinum dup bug, because when I wake up I
will have a nice email in my mailbox saying that player #4342151 has 2
standard deviations more $ than the rest of the server combined!
These are the people that find all the potential problems for you.

Certainly, you need to have some logging mechanism to find out who is
exploiting but that is pretty easy to do.

I personally don't think incentives work that well. There are only so
many titles and "unique" items you can give out to players.  And
usually it is worth more to not report the exploit and reap the
benefits of it, than report it and get some wussy reward.  Even if it
is below your level to gain from it anymore, you ALWAYS gain long
lasting friendships with people you "alert" to the fact that one can
get safe exp over yonder in zone foo.

If you could find some way to actively employ these people that would
be the best.  Even if you hire them for your QA team, they lose
something in their desire as it is now their job vs "beating" the
developers for personal gain.

msew

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