"Advanced" use of virtual worlds? (Re: [MUD-Dev] MMORP Gs & MUDs)

[J C Lawrence]

On Wed, 30 Jan 2002 13:03:21 -0800 
Jeff Freeman <Freeman> wrote:
> Travis Casey wrote:

> However, self-labeled Role-Players...

Part of the problem here is that RP covers a sufficiently broad
spectrum of activities and definitions that its difficult if not
impossible to get a single conclusive definition -- especially since
members towards the various edges of the definitional space tend to
define those at the other edges as "not roleplay{ing|ers}.  There's
quite a lot of internal structure in there for such a core field,
especially one which is so poorly represented on the list.

> But if you don't OOC, then we're not interacting with on a
> player-to-player level, I'm interacting with your character, or
> not at all.

Internally I tend to define RP as a style of play wherein the player
deliberately creates and manipulates an identity possessing
behaviours and qualities which can be identified as representative
of that character.  This is a purely empirical objective definition
and as such doesn't account for internal perception and value sets
in RP.

> So, I'll revise that original statement: Not ever breaking-fiction
> in an MMO means denying yourself a great wealth of interaction
> with other people.

Humans (largely) live to communicate.  To a very large extent,
everything else is either window dressing or an excuse to
communicate more.  That's one of the core lessons of internal
communication systems in MUDs.  UO learnt that sorely via their
disabling of in-game IM/chat systems and players adoption of ICQ et
al.

--
J C Lawrence                
---------(*)                Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas. 
claw at kanga.nu               He lived as a devil, eh?		  
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/  Evil is a name of a foeman, as I live.
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