[MUD-Dev] Maintaining fiction.

[Ananda Dawnsinger]

This is a long post, so I'm going to snip outrageously and hit only
the high points...

> From: Trump <trump at vividvideo.com>

> The 'net - Ethereal Plane
> ISP connection - Silver cord
> Lock-up - Violent severing of the Silver cord
> Dollars - Souls of dead presidents
> Game account - Visa
> Real life person - Soul
> Ping - Silver cord length (measured in knots)
> Lag - Ethereal storms or winds
> Real world - Otherworld
> Email - Messenger
> NPC - Native / Host
> Graphics - Ethereal vision
> Log (in) - Posses a native
> Log (out) - Dispossess a native/Sleep
> Mouse - Wand
> Mouse click - Wand tap
> Game developers - Ministry of tourism
> Bug - Anomaly
> Account Cancellation - Banishment

I have to say that this sort of things is one of my Very Special Pet
Peeves.  I cannot STAND most invented terms for inherently OOC
concepts (or, if you'd rather, flaws in the mediation of the
environment).

For example, DragonRealms doesn't have lag.  It has... fog.  Never
mind that it can be "foggy" while a spectacular sunset illuminates the
sky.  Never mind that I've never heard of a fog so dense that it makes
you take thirty seconds to close your backpack or make a wiseacre
comment.  Never mind that lag is not part of the character's world,
and therefore your character shouldn't be perceiving it, much less
talking freely about it.

I find it much less distracting to overhear (and mentally edit out)
option A:

> "This NPC is trapped in a wall and I cant click on him with my
> mouse. My ISP is crappy today, my ping is about four hundred and I
> have lots of lag. I think I'll just log and send an email to the
> developers about this bug."

than be expected to accept option B as a natural part of my
character's environment:

> "This native is stuck in a wall so I cant tap him with my wand. My
> silver cord is not very strong today and is over four hundred knots
> long, so I am suffering from the ethereal winds. I think I'll just
> go to sleep now and send a messenger to the ministry of tourism
> about this anomaly."

What's so wrong with option C?

"You know, I'm not feeling myself and Boffo doesn't seem to be in the
mood to talk to me.  I think I'm going to head home and go to bed.
Maybe things will be better tomorrow."

If you want to explain about lag and bugs to your friend, whisper to
him.  If you want to discuss the situation with a group, go somewhere
quiet and talk about it plainly.  You'll get it over with faster so
you can get back to playing the game.

In other words -- don't talk about the mediation ('net, FE,
administration, etc.) unless you have to.  If you do, do it plainly
and get it over with.  Don't force me to accept the vicissitudes of
the 'Net as an integral part of my character's fiction.

> Now that you have the basic vocabulary you must build your game
> around the fact that you dont ever want to injure your player's
> ability to suspend thier disbelief.  Build a premiss that covers up
> for some of the limitations you are facing.

I suspect any premise that attempts to "cover up... the limitations"
would fundamentally violate my suspension of disbelief.  Roleplaying
in such a world would, to me, be like writing a book about characters
in a book.  I'm a Romantic; I can't get that meta.  (I'm reminded of
Underlight, which was set in a dream world in which all characters
were avatars from the player's dreams.)

   -- Sharon

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