[MUD-Dev] Maintaining fiction.

[Matt Mihaly]

On Thu, 31 May 2001, Trump wrote:
> Brian Hook wrote:

>> Such as the "important fiction" of "Crap, my ISP puked while I was
>> fighting Lord Gilgatroll and now I'm dead...forever"?
 
> Some games will cause your character to stop fighting and die if you
> should get disconnected.  Others have the AI take over.  If the AI
> takes over and surrenders to Lord Gigatroll, how is this any worse
> than your standard exp losing fake death from a disconnect?

So as you want total immersiveness and are heavy on the simulation
aspect, you are able to surrendur to every monster? Remember that
there is no efficient way, to my knowledge, to instantly know when
someone has lost his link, without treating all sorts of temporary net
hangups as lost links. So in your system, it seems that either you
can't let the players ever die (if I'm about to die, then I just cut
my link and let the AI surrendur for me, unless surrenduring is an
option, and I'll just use it every time I'm going to lose. I don't
believe you're using the word immersive correctly in many of your
examples, but in your vernacular, having every monster accept a
surrendur ain't too immersive as it's completely unbelievable.)

>> This is where we enter the very dangerous land of "My definition of
>> an RPG is the correct one".  You can take "RPG" very literally or
>> you can look at it historically.
 
> I prefer to call a spade a spade even if it was historically called
> an RPG.

Language has no inherent meaning. If people think of as RPG as other than
a role-playing game then it's different, at least to them. You're just
making a semantical argument.

>> This is just as big a strait jacket.  What if you want to be
>> Drizzt, the Good Dark Elf?
 
> Then that is your character.  If you want to dress like a dark elf
> and talk like a highschool kid from Ohio you arent roleplaying.  If
> you dress like a dark elf and talk like a dark elf and act lick a
> dark elf, then you are.  The only problem is when you try to
> roleplay Drizzt the NASCAR and Lakers fan.

Oh what a load of _crap_ that is. Roleplaying is playing a role. Just
because the role doesn't fit in with your one-dimensional stereotypes
doesn't mean it's not a role and that the person isn't playing the
role. If my fictional world has NASCAR and the Laker and dark elves in
it, then you're durn right that I can legitimately roleplay Drizzt the
NASCAR and Lakers fan. Even if it has dark elves but not NASCAR or
Lakers, I can roleplay a dark elf who likes NASCAR and the
Lakers. That's the role I'm playing. By definition, if you name a
role, then playing it is roleplaying. Doesn't matter how ridiculous
the role sounds to your ears. Now whether it's roleplaying consistent
with the world you are playing in is an entirely different question,
but as you are fixated on semantics, it's called a "Roleplaying Game",
not a "Roleplaying (but only consistent with the world) Game." The
words "Roleplaying Game" do not inherently imply any more than that
it's a game in which people play roles.

>> The problem is that you've said the same thing, but you've made it
>> more work for someone reading the second paragraph.  This isn't any
>> more "in character" than the first one, it just covers it up with
>> some bright lights and shiny imagery, but underneath it's still
>> techie speak.  >
 
> Exactly.  And covering your techie speak with bright lights and
> shiny imagery is a Good Thing in an RPG.

It's a good thing for a very very small RPG. It's not a good thing for
a large RPG.


> All MUDs/MMORPGS have Lingua Obscura.  Choosing to guide that
> language in a early stage towards a more fiction friendly vocabulary
> is the goal.  Should you burn the houses, and kill the familys of
> anyone who calls Monsters MOBS?  No.  Should you lead by example and
> call them Monsters?  Yes.

Making any distinction at all between players and humanoid NPCs
(assuming the standard Judeo-christian basic morality system) is
unimmersive. In fact, since you want complete immersion, until all the
mobs can pass the Turing test, it's pointless to have any of them as
they will only remind you of the fact that you're playing a computer
game. Further, once you've developed them to that level of
intelligence, you'd have to, of course, treat killing a humanoid mob
the same as you'd treat killing a player.

Don't be a Richard Stallman. There's more than one level of
roleplaying and in any case, enjoyment is presumably the goal, and
roleplaying (and other mechanisms) merely the tools to get
there. Focusing slavishly on roleplay while not considering it's
impact on playability is like spending all your time polishing the
handle of the hammer when you could be actually building something
with it.

--matt

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