[MUD-Dev] Enforced log out aka "real sleep"

[Amanda Walker]

On 2/14/02 7:43 PM, Brian Hook <brianhook at pyrogon.com> wrote:

> I personally don't have a motivation for it, really.  After
> reading my WW fan fic, it just got me thinking about the dynamics
> of that situation and how it would relate to a real-time on-line
> universe.

One of the big difficulties in translating an existing milieu into
an online multiplayer environment is that the online environment
does not resemble a physical location.  In a physical environment,
the inhabitants are always present--they sleep when it's sleeping
time, and run around killing things when it's
run-around-killing-things time.  In an online environment, the times
at which players are doing various activities is completely
uncorrelated with other players or "game time".

> In this particular case (enforced log out), it's to ensure that
> the temporal balance of power is maintained.  Down time solves a
> very different problem (contention for resources, braking effect
> on advancement) and is there to encourage socializing and (mental)
> respite from combat.

If I were trying to design a vampire online game, I probably
wouldn't try to map the world to the vampire milieu so much as the
player's experience.

For example, whenever the player logs in, it's night (that is, the
"on-camera" world is just night 24x7).  Stuff may have happened
while the player wasn't around.  The major challenge there is
avoiding exploits based on never logging out ;-).  This gives
players the experience of having stuff happen while they weren't
able to act that they then have to deal with (part of the Complete
Vampire Experience) without taking this out of the time they are
playing.

I have no idea how you'd do this, but it seems to me that framing it
as a character experience problem rather than a world mechanics
problem could be a more fruitful approach.

Amanda Walker <amanda at alfar.com>

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