[MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

[Richard A. Bartle]

On 1st March, 2001, Jeremy Gaffney wrote:

> So one could argue that permadeath hurts/disincentivizes roleplayers
> from playing

This is where separating it off into a badlands area would help.
People who only want to role-play don't have to go anywhere near where
they could suffer PD. If they do want to go there, then it would have
to be because their character wanted to, even though their character
would "know" the possible consequences. If it didn't work out and the
character died, well yes, that would be very annoying for the player
but it's "what the character would have wanted".

> and encourages players who form minimal attachment to a given
> character and are efficiency experts at regaining levels -
> powergamers.

It encourages them to overcommit and get wasted, which isn't all that
bad a result.

> It's difficult to determine whether incentivizing "heroic" behavior
> in games is for the benefit of roleplaying-biased designers, or
> because "heroic" behavior is actually more fun (to swing over to the
> "'Doing' a dungeon" thread:) - I could see arguments either way.

I wouldn't argue for putting PD in a game to encourage people to be
heroic. I would, however, argue for putting it in a game to ensure
that people who talk heroic ARE heroic.

		Richard
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