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

Caliban Tiresias Darklock caliban at darklock.com
Thu Feb 7 18:57:27 CET 2002


From: "Matt Mihaly" <the_logos at achaea.com>

> Characters don't have the capability to know someone else. I can
> get to know things about Bill's character, but my character can't.

I see you don't actually grok roleplaying.

If I'm playing Romeo in a production of Romeo and Juliet, at the end
of the play I the actor know that Juliet is not really dead and will
awaken shortly. I the *character*, however, do not know this and
will take the poison out of grief.

That's the difference between what *I* know and what my *character*
knows.  Sure, I may want Romeo to hesitate just a few minutes longer
so Juliet can wake up and stop him and the two of them can run off
and frolic in the meadows of jolly olde England and live happily
ever after, but what I want doesn't enter into it. It's what Romeo
knows and what Romeo would do that matter, and -- knowing what he
thinks he knows -- Romeo would take the poison.

When roleplaying, you must make the same choices your character
would make in light of *his* knowledge... not yours. *I* may know
the chest is trapped and will explode when I open it, but an
impulsive and greedy character will probably not even stop to think
about it. If I'm playing that character "correctly", chances are
he's about to die in a chest explosion.

Or, then again, I could break role and ignore the chest to salvage
the character, which would be "cheating". Only I know what is or
isn't cheating in terms of how my character does or doesn't react
and behave.

If you still don't get it, chances are you're never going to get it.


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