[MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

[Travis Casey]

Tuesday, March 06, 2001, 11:42:28 AM, Paul Schwanz - Enterprise
Services <Paul.Schwanz at Sun.COM> wrote:

> Jeremy Gaffney wrote:

>> So one could argue that permadeath hurts/disincentivizes
>> roleplayers from playing and encourages players who form minimal
>> attachment to a given character and are efficiency experts at
>> regaining levels - powergamers.  Which is interesting given how
>> often permadeath is stated as being a roleplaying-driven desire.

> C'mon.  Give roleplayers a bit more credit.  Not all who like RP
> insist on playing "Wylie Coyote," picking themselves up after being
> blown up, flattened, or making that little silhouette in the ground
> when falling from a great height, ready to chase after the Road
> Runner and try again.

> Some of us can even deal with tragedy.  In fact, some of us are able
> to seen the entertainment value of many different themes and moods
> that fit together to tell a story.

[snip a bunch]

To semi-quote Robert Plamondon in his book _Through Dungeons Deep: A
Fantasy Gamer's Handbook_:

  "The story of a great hero isn't complete until it recounts that
  hero's great and noble death."

(I say semi-quote because I don't have the book here with me.  That's
as close as I can remember it, but probably isn't exactly right.)
   
In our culture, people generally seek to avoid death -- but there
are/have been other cultures in which people actively sought to die a
"good death".

I have had roleplayers in games I've run be *happy* that I let their
characters die sacrificing themselves to save the rest of the party.
Why?  Because for their character *not* to die would have cheapened
that character's sacrificial gesture.

(The same thing can be seen in books and movies as well.  For example,
I love Frank Herbert's _Dune_ and _Dune Messiah_, but hate _Children
of Dune_.  Why?  Because the first two books build up Paul and make us
feel for him, and then show us his devotion to life and his people
through his making the ultimate sacrifice -- to give up all the power
and glory he has attained, and go into the desert to die alone.  And
then the third book makes all that meaningless, by having Paul's
sacrifice not be as great (he's still alive) and by telling us that
Paul, in fact, took the easy way out.  His son takes what we find was
a harder way that Paul was afraid to take.)

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_    Travis S. Casey  <efindel at earthlink.net>
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   No one agrees with me.  Not even me.
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)   


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