[MUD-Dev] A Question on PvP and PK

[Ron Gabbard]

From: "Kwon Ekstrom" <justice at softhome.net>
> From: "Zach Collins (Siege)" <zcollins at seidata.com>
>> On Fri, 2 Aug 2002 szii at sziisoft.com wrote:

>>> A good chunk of my "chess" memories from jr. high are getting
>>> WAXED by a 2400+ ranked Grandmaster.  He would give me his queen
>>> and both rooks and still work me over.

>>> You know what?  I learned a hell of a lot from him on how to use
>>> other pieces and the extreme value of positioning.

<snip>

> As a competition level chess player, you "don't" see what makes a
> player as good as they are, you are a victim of the moves that are
> present during that game.  Under repeated exposures to a specific
> player you may notice trends in that player's style that you can
> exploit, or trends that are good practices.  You can gather this
> information from a variety of players over time and improve your
> skill.

> If the mud is worthwhile these clues are there as well... if it's
> just sit in a room and hit repeatedly then you're wasting your
> time trying to find good pvp on that mud.  I find the analogy from
> chess to pvp interesting because in chess everything starts out
> fair... in a mud NOTHING is even...  there's intrisic differences
> between the players, levels, skill set, equipment... These make
> for a much more interesting set of possible outcomes.

There is another huge difference between chess, tennis, etc. and PvP
combat -- a sense of sportsmanship and/or etiquette.  Losing to a
grandmaster in chess while they respectfully and systematically rip
your strategy apart is one thing.  Losing to a grandmaster in chess
while they taunt you, create irritating distractions while you're
trying to decide on your next move, or are just rude in one of many
possible ways will probably lead you to never want to play that
person again regardless of what you could learn from them about the
game of chess.

The brilliance behind the DAoC RvR is that they dehumanized the
whole process while allowing players from each realm to gain
reputations from repeated success.  This has allowed all types of
players to participate in and enjoy the PvP system... even those
that would never even consider going PvP+ in any other environment.
If you look at war in general, what is it that allows accountants,
plumbers, and otherwise peaceful people to put on a uniform and
shove a sharpened piece of metal through the neck of someone wearing
a different uniform with the resulting gorey details?  If you look
at the American Civil War, why were many of the most ruthless and
bloodiest conflicts in the border states where neighbor was killing
neighbor?  Dehumanizing the PvP process would seem to be critical to
maintaining a large and diverse playerbase as the emotions just get
too high for the non-Killer types otherwise.

I guess it comes down to whether a game expects the players to
assume the role of Hannibal or Hannibal Lechter.

Cheers,

Ron


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