[MUD-Dev] Maintaining fiction.

[caduvall at wam.umd.edu]

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Original message: http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/2001Q2/msg01691.php

On Fri, 22 Jun 2001 01:34:54 -0700 (PDT)
Matt Mihaly <the_logos at achaea.com> wrote:

> No. As has already been established, a MUD does not have control
> over a character. I can play Lancelot on any MUD that advertises
> permadeath, and there isn't a damn thing they can do to kill the
> character of Lancelot. They could kill the avatar, but never
> irreversibly, which is why "permadeath" or "absolute death" seems
> fuzzy to me. They rely on being 100% certain of the intentions of
> every designer who will ever contribute to the world in the
> future.

And what effect does even a temporarily designed 'permadeath' or
'absolute death' have on the player of a character? They can start a
'new' character, and claim to those they knew and know and get to
know that they were and are the person known as <permanently
dead>. The character is not about the mechanics of the game -- it is
about the picture of the character the player holds within their
mind, and, through the social interaction with others, that picture
of the character held in the minds of others.

A character can be 'permanenently dead' when they leave and do not
come back and no one else inhabits that avatar will skill enough to
make others believe -- suspend disbelief -- that they are the same
character.

What stops the player from coming back in the future? I played
Matt's game for a couple years, and left. I consider my character
played within the game dead. Permanently dead, as it were even
though to the game 'database', the character is alive. If I were to
log back in, the character would then be 'alive' both to the game
and to me and to those who know me.

Permadeath is then temporary?

--Chuck
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