[MUD-Dev] Death among Friends

[Tommy Wang]

--- Jon Morrow <Jon at Morrow.net> wrote:

> In my pursuit of the meaning of "fun," I stumbled across some
> interesting memories from my lengthy stay on GemStone 3.  I recall
> fighting in massive wars called invasions where hordes of powerful
> creatures besieged our town, forcing everyone to form defensive
> (sometimes attacking) groups.  As I was a low level, I knew the
> chances of earning one of the treasures were slim. In fact, I was
> little more than a glory-seeking newbie about to be corpsified.
> But strangely enough, I was having fun.  Trying to avoid one of
> the GM-run boss creatures had me pumping pure adrenaline, and
> eventually meeting my ghastly fate with an extra neat death
> message was near euphoria.  But why?
 
> I'm sure part of was the challenge of staying alive, but I'm
> hunting down a more elusive answer.  When I was fighting those
> monsters, even hopelessly, I felt purposeful, important, and
> accepted into "the group."  Instead of mindlessly decapitating the
> normal, wretched creature, I was defending my beloved town and
> friends in what little way I could from an overpowering force of
> nasties.  I lined up beside newbie and legend alike, believing I
> was making a crucial difference.  And when I died, not only was I
> dragged to safety by a friend with the same purpose, but the
> healers treated me with the same respect and care as the heroes
> bloodied and waiting behind me.

Indeed, need greater than oneself spawns cooperation. And a
cooperative effort doubtlessly spawns comraderie (sp?)  You see much
of the same in RL, and some of the best friendships developed come
from being in the same class when rushing for a frat =p Given
something to believe in (or something to defend), people will often
rise up to challenge, and b*tch less about little things.  Your
search for something ellusive got me thinking about something just
as ellusive.  You were a newbie, fairly new to Gemstone (at least,
that character was).  You therefore, probably didn't have a strong
affixation to that particular town?  Why did you rise to arms?  Was
it the pure hype of the mob (as in, mob of people, not mobile)?  Did
you get caught up in all the prep-talks, and cheers, or whatnot...?
Did it involve roleplay (roleplaying that you cared?)

I guess the point that I'm getting to, is people in life can band.
People in life would probably die for a cause -- but it'd better be
a pretty important cause.  In MUD, however, maybe all you need is
hype? Surely, if a MUD allowed freedom to create your own
causes...but then we run into human organization problems (it almost
takes a napolean IRL to make a napolean in game).  But, if given the
cause (the local dragon zoo lost control & suddenly, we've got
boggies of ranging from majestic to ugly ravaging the region) can
spawn such reaction (need greater than self) -- then perhaps that,
coupled with a few hidden Imms to get things rolling -- can spawn a
band of "dragon-police" or whatnot.  The basic boils down to
finding/creating causes strong enough to bring organized (or
disorganized) response from players.

 
> Is there something we can harness as designers here?  Social
> interaction has long been a favorite topic of this list, but I've
> not seen the idea of meaningful gaming.  I'm not talking about
> teaching players the meaning of life or even stimulating them to
> think.  I just remember experiencing something powerful, and I
> was, to say the least, entertained.

Well, I agree with you that ultimately the goal is entertainment.
The method, is organization.  The social part of it, comes from the
fact that people just aren't very organized.  Social conflict, was
only one method of attempting to stimulate organization. In fact,
any conflict could.  (And, No.  Wanting to level up just isn't good
'nuff).  So, I think Jon brings out a good point: There are numerous
ways to creative organized effort.  Social classes/structures
(clans, guilds, whatever) can cause people to organize..but often
neglects to mention what they organize for/against.  A natural
disaster (well, disaster anyway) could also create organization,
with an immediate problem/task at hand.

I think, a note worth mentioning is that the monsters that invaded
the town were GM driven.  In essence, I think most of us agree that
people just aren't motivated enough to create large organizations
(Geez, I've GOT to find a thesaurus).  Imms need to take a hand in
the world, and create conflict.  Sometimes, Imms need to unleash
bloody hell on the world...or, whisper evil into someone's ear.
This way, while players are allowed to "organize" -- a good deal is
already done by Imms.  Hmm..that was worded badly. Imms set the
scene, limit the choices and timeframe for players to respond and
react.  I guess, ultimately, Imms are the ones with the pitchfork
and fiery lash prodding everyone towards ultimate
chaos...mwuahaha...>)
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