[MUD-Dev] MMORPGs & MUDs

[Sellers]

Rayzam wrote:

> A challenge isn't necessary. What is necessary is what was stated
> 2 paragraphs above, social referents, or some way to delineate a
> social hierarchy. As Einstein said: it's relative.  If you take a
> group of people out of a larger group, isolating them from the
> rest, the group tends to break up into groups similar to the
> original.

That's true, but an external challenge or crisis provides a great
catalyst.  Your group of valedictorians will begin forming internal
community bonds much faster if they're set upon by a group of
jeering jocks (or trolls, depending on your genre ;-) ).

> Take the valedictorians from a variety of high schools, and put
> them in the same college, and that class of freshmen will break up
> into different social groups, just like they had in high school,
> and like is shown in The Breakfast Club. There's a similar effect
> in prison populations.

Right, and in those example populations (Breakfast Club, prison),
there was an external crisis that encouraged circling the wagons.
Of course in these types of groups this can also cause a brief "lord
of the flies" period as people sort out internal dominance and other
relationships with less-than-perfect social skills and tools.

> Communities are fractal.

This is a very, very important point that I think we (in both
practical and theoretical terms -- Christopher Alexander is the
patron saint of this, I believe) are only scratching the surface of
now.

Mike Sellers
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