[MUD-Dev] Are gratification-based (online) societies doomed to being immatu re?

[Marian Griffith]

On Fri 12 Jul, Derek Licciardi wrote:

I will respond to more points raised in this thread but this one I
wanted to say immediately.

> In my mind there has to be a way to empower the players to create
> stronger societies such that the threshold for accepting loss is
> raised high enough to support higher forms of cultural and
> societal interaction.

But players already accept loss.  They know that they risk losing
some gold, equipment or experience when they fail in a fight. They
just expect to be able to recoup those losses, and that they are not
too frequent (or can be avoided if they so desire).

> We can't have every city war/trade war/political war resulting in
> 50% of participants canceling subscriptions because they
> lost. According to the assessment of players in the thread, most
> players would opt out of more mature gameplay because someone had
> to lose by engaging in said gameplay.

I did not read it like that.  At least not that strongly. To me it
was first a complaint towards the game staff, who strive to remove
any non-fun (i.e. possibility of losing) activity from the game in
an attempt to keep as many players as possible.  The original poster
said that encouraged the players to behave like spoiled four year
olds.  At no point did I read that he believed this to be the be all
and end all of online games. Quite the contrary, I read it as a plea
for more possibility of conflict within the game.  You only need to
look at quake, half-life or counterstrike to see that there is
indeed a large market for games that focus on direct confrontation
between players.


Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev