[MUD-Dev] Ethical behavior ... a hijacking.

[Matt Mihaly]

On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Jeff Cole wrote:
>> From: John Buehler
 
>> In truth, the rights of players don't ever change because they
>> remain the rights of people in a community.  Our rights don't
>> need to be restated, only understood in light of the anonymous,
>> multiplayer environment.
 
> Surely, you are not espousing some idea of "inalienable human
> rights" applied to games?  Ack!

I think what John means here is that avatars don't have rights, and
the idea of them having rights is a bit loony. They are just
database entries. I think what he's saying is that the conventional
view is that only living things (or only people, depending on how
broad-minded someone is) have rights, and that these rights aren't
changed or altered by the circumstance of playing a game. They just
need to be interpreted in that light.

> You have the greatest right of all: the right not to play.  To the
> extent that you play, you are subject to the rights that the
> designers/developers afford you.

Well I certainly agree with you, but sadly, when it comes to the
law, might makes right, and the government has the might. I would
say the same thing you just said about drugs: You have the right not
to use them. The use of them is, nontheless, HEAVILY regulated
obviously.

>> For anyone not picking up on it, I consider immersion to be bad
>> when the duration of the immersion is under the control of the
>> player.  Limited immersion is one thing.  Hours and hours of it
>> is not reasonable.
 
> huh?  What do you think player's look for in these games?  It's
> certainly some amount of immersion.

John doesn't feel that players are intelligent enough or have enough
willpower to limit their playing hours to what he deems is
reasonable. In some cases, he's probably right, but that's their
problem, not mine as a developer/administrator. I spent 15 minutes
on the phone this morning with a mother begging me to help me get
her college-attending son to stop playing Achaea or Aetolia, as he's
going to flunk out of college soon. Her words were "He's as addicted
as if he had a needle sticking out of his arm." That's a bit of an
overstatement no doubt, but John feels, I think, that addiction
should be the developer/administrator's responsibility rather than
the players' (or at least partially the developer/administrator's
responsibility).

>> So write a document that does one thing and one thing only:
>> reinforce the standing of the individuals playing the game and
>> stop focusing on the characters in the game.
 
> It's called the EULA.

Quite right. 

This is directed to John: Why would a single document be desirable
or necessary? I mean, the standing of individuals in games is
already contained in the legal codes of the various countries of the
world. And why would I, as a developer/administrator, sign that kind
of document, except as a marketing ploy?

 
--matt

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