[MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

[Travis Casey]

the_logos at www.achaea.com wrote:
> On Thu, 8 Mar 2001, Travis Casey wrote:
>> <the_logos at www.achaea.com> wrote:

>>> Quite right. Permadeath should have no real effect on a 'pure'
>>> roleplayer, as pure roleplaying is about the process of playing
>>> the role and the enjoyment gained from simply acting, not about
>>> some goal like keeping your character alive.
 
>> Even without a goal of keeping your character alive, it is possible
>> to feel sorrow for the loss of something that has given you joy.  I
>> do not have a "goal" in my relationship with my father, but when he
>> dies, I will be sad that he's no longer around to talk to, do
>> things with, play with my daughter, etc.
 
> That's not the same thing at all. Your father dying is equivalent to
> a player leaving the MUD and ending all communication with you
> forever in terms we're speaking of. From an absolutely pure
> roleplaying perspective, I still maintain that the character
> shouldn't matter, as it doesn't matter who you're playing, as long
> as you're doing it exquisitely well.

You're missing a point here, though -- a character *is* a person, just
a fictional one.  With permadeath, once I have lost a particular
character, I can never have the experience of being *that* character
again.  I might have an equally good, or even better, experience with
playing *another* character, but it will not be *that* character.

I'll note further that you're breaking your own definition of a "pure
roleplayer" in your rebuttal -- you claim that a "pure roleplayer" has
no goals in playing a character, but simply enjoys the experience.  If
that is so, then "it doesn't matter who you're playing, as long as
you're doing it exquisitely well" makes no sense -- if that is the
case, then the pure roleplayer does have a goal -- to play well.

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