[MUD-Dev] Maintaining fiction.

[Jon Lambert]

Matt Mihaly wrote:
> On Fri, 15 Jun 2001, Vincent Archer wrote:
>> According to Matt Mihaly:
  
>>> You guys keep throwing around concepts like "If you die and
>>> don't come back it's permadeath." Define 'you' first, otherwise
>>> the statement is pretty meaningless. Permadeath revolves around
>>> the definition of a character, and so far, I haven't heard any
>>> persuasive argument that a character is held exclusively in a
>>> database.
 
>> To paraphrase someone: "I know permadeath when I see it".

>> To me, the accurate definition of having permadeath is when, to
>> bring a character back to the point I want it to be, it takes as
>> long with that character as it would take if I choose to create a
>> new character and played it exclusively for a while.
 
> This presumes that the only currency that matters or should matter
> in a MUD is time. I strongly disagree with that
> precept. Permadeath under the above definition is only possible if
> a) You assume the character only resides in the database and b)
> That there is _no_ way to apply skill and experience to become
> more efficient. For if there's any room at all for the application
> of knowledge gained the first time around, then it seems pretty
> likely that it wouldn't take as long. It would really never take
> the same amount of time anyway. The world won't be the same.

How about this definition:

  Permadeath occurs when the player decides that the character they
  have been playing is dead.

It's not a complete definition since in some games players play a
permanent character or recurring role.  Like a player who plays Luke
Skywalker on a Stars Wars Mush for a few months and then someone
else picks up the role.  Skywalker dies either when the story calls
for him to die, or when the storytellers (implementers/players)
agree that it is time for him to die.

Still in both cases it's death by player(s) consent. 

I believe the permadeath by consent happens on most HnS style games.
In some cases, the player decides never to log in again, or deletes.
In other cases, the player deletes and recreates and plays the same
character again.  The principle is the character is dead when it is
dead in the mind of the player who played the character.

I've added a permadeath flag to a pretty standard ROM mud as an
added challenge.  As everyone knows leveling up a character on most
Diku style muds is fairly easy.  In this case players who choose
permadeath are forever dead.  The angle is the name is reusable if
they die before level 20.  After that level they get a plot in our
cemetery.  The higher the level the more elaborate and more visible
the tomb, statue, etc.  They are also flagged PK as well. Anyways
it's another chosen advancement track.  For a HnS Diku style mud,
this is probably analogous to Doom's Nightmare mode.  Anyways the
reward here is not something as tangible as levels or gold, it's
solely reputation.

--
--* Jon A. Lambert - TychoMUD        Email:jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com *--
--* Mud Server Developer's Page <http://tychomud.home.netcom.com> *--
--* If I had known it was harmless, I would have killed it myself.*--
 
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