[MUD-Dev] Korea and online world responsibility

[Matt Mihaly]

On Fri, 6 Dec 2002, Sean Kelly wrote:

> Are there political forms which reduce these behaviors?  Sure.
> Create a game where status can not be gained outside the context
> of the game, be it by item transferral or by earning favors.

Since what players are really going for is glory, there's no way to
do this, even in theory. You as the game designer have no way at all
of making rigid standards for success in your MUD, because you don't
set the goals of it. What if I'm a teenage girl, and go play
Everquest and decide that winning, for me, means getting as many
people as possible to just "be my friend". What if one of the ways I
decide to do that is to go right ahead and sleep with as many of
them (out of game) as possible. There's fundamentally nothing you
can do to stop that sort of behavior, because, again, you can't
control or define player motivation. It's one of the greatest things
about a MUD, but also one of the biggest hassles as a designer.
 
--matt


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