[MUD-Dev] "An essay on d00dism and the MMORPG"

[Vincent Archer]

According to geoffrey at yorku.ca:

> orginal Ultimas, posing the question of whether players made the
> right decisions because they were 'right', or because that was the
> only way to succeed in the game.  One proposed solution to people
> gaming the moral tests in an RPG was to have people able to succeed
> following both routes - ethical and unethical - but this, in turn,
> made the choice irrelevant, etc...

Not irrelevant. It make the choice a matter of personal inclinations
rather than minmaxing.

Now, if you want to use the game to "teach" ethics, then you need your
dilemma to give an impression. In other words, the "good" solution
must reward the player, while the "bad" solutions don't.

Which brings it back to min-maxing. The real challenge, if you want to
use the game as an ethic lesson, is to associate *in the mind* of the
player the fact that this solution to the dilemma is good because it
was right, not because it produces a reward.

Note that, in real life, a lot of people fail to get the point for a
very long time, if ever. To them, dilemma has a solution which boils
down "because if I don't, I'll get punished".

To look at an attempt of raising an ethical dilemma, look at
Everquest's Velious. I don't know if the faction dynamics there were
or were not intended to pose a dilemma for the players.

For the uninitiated, Velious postulates three main factions, Ice
Dwarves, Giants and Dragons. Basically, you are supposed (if you
believe the promo material and the manuals) to choose a side.

However, the final execution is awful. Basically, Dragons and Dwarves
are neutral to each other, so it boils down to: are you ennemies of
the Giants and allied to dragons or their allies and a bane of dragons
(note that dwarves, here, are irrelevant).

Enter the balance that was supposed to make people choose according to
- ahem - roleplaying reasons, or their own inclination.

Ennemies of the giants: You get basically one free hunting zone. Kael
Drakkal (the giant city). You also get safe teleport points in two
high level areas, because you'll be allied to dragons by default.

Allies of the giants and ennemy of the dragons: You are now free to
hunt in no less than *SIX* high level zones (Skyshrine, Cobalt Scar,
Western Wastes, Dragon Necropolis, Temple of Veeshan, Sleepers Tomb)
where a large number of creatures are affiliated to the dragons. Plus,
you have safe passage thru a zone (Kael) that is a mandatory passage
on Velious to access the other areas.

Basically, that's why you see dwarves hunting dwarves for the bigger
glory of Rallos Zek. Because there are an incredible number of
benefits to doing things *that* way.

Of course, Everquest isn't the best example of an ethics-oriented game
:)

--
Vincent Archer                                         Email: archer at nevrax.com

Nevrax France.                              Off on the yellow brick road we go!
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