FW: [MUD-Dev] Interesting EQ rant (very long quote)

[John Buehler]

Jon Lambert writes:
> John Buehler wrote:

>> My only point was that the player and the character are not
>> interchangeable.  This is an obvious statement, but to read
>> people's posts, you'd never think that they believed it.  Depending
>> on the software, the balance point between what the player
>> contributes and what the character contributes to the game
>> experience will vary.

> *kof*

> There are many more positions on this than yours or Matt Mihaly's.
> I think Matt's position is fairly clear; In summary, there is no
> distinction between character and player.  And I know from past
> posts that he is/was even dubious about heavy roleplayers drawing
> that distinction.  I tend to agree with that position in regards to
> _games_.  And he does seem to have come around to the notion that
> heavy roleplayers really do intentionally make or create such
> distinctions between player and character.  Whether he thinks it's
> real/artificial or useful isn't really an issue here.  What is
> interesting is that he has reversed that idea that a game which
> implements separation of character and player identity would attract
> heavy roleplayers.  I would suggest that it does not.  Strong
> separation of character and player are the observable effects or
> consequences of a roleplaying game.  It's something that doesn't
> require code nor can it be coded, nor can it be enforced by code!
> Roleplaying is 99% communication.  Sure one can manually enforce use
> of channels and what not.  However the reverse notion simply doesn't
> follow.  That is creating a "game" that implements strong separation
> of character and player identity does not have the effect of
> creating a roleplaying game nor does it attract roleplayers.

What does your post have to do with mine?  I haven't said a word about
roleplayers, enforced separation of character and player or any of
that.  I'm saying only that game designers should be cognizant of
where the line exists between character and player - regardless of
where the players try to draw it for themselves.

If the player has the ability to tell a character to jump off a cliff
to its death and the character jumps, then the line is at one point.
If the player has that ability and the character refuses, then the
line is at another point.

If the player presses keys quickly, causing the character to move
quickly, then the line is at one point.  If, no matter how fast the
player presses keys, the character moves at its own predefined speed,
then the line is at another point.

JB

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