[MUD-Dev] About Fencing (was: mass customisation)

[John Buehler]

Marian Griffith writes:
> On Wed 17 Jul, Travis Casey wrote:
>> Tuesday, July 16, 2002, 7:45:22 AM, Marian Griffith wrote:

>>> No, the solution would not be to make it less significant, but
>>> to give the players more control. I.e. it would not be easy if
>>> at all possible, to get blown out of the sky withing seconds.
>>> By focussing less on attrition of hitpoints, and more on skill
>>> and parry, then players have a lot of action to determine the
>>> outcome of a fight.

>>> Anybody here involved with the SCA, or otherwise skilled in the
>>> arts of sword fighting?

>> I've had some training and practice in sword, staff, stick, and
>> unarmed fighting, and have read widely on the subject.  What sort
>> of info are you looking for?

> Mainly I am curious to know how the experience of actual fencing
> (which I have done only twice) can be translated to muds. For me
> the actual experience is *vastly* different from watching messages
> scroll by..

>   You hit the ugly troll
>   The ugly troll misses you
>   You hit the ugly troll
>   The ugly troll barely scratches you
>   ... and so on.

> From what I understand fencing is more about blocking your oppo-
> nent, and moving him into a position where you can strike, and I
> wonder if that can be done in a mud. It would slow down the pace
> but I can not help but think that it would be, in the end, more
> entertaining. And on a graphical mud, where you can actually see
> your opponent, it would look and work even better I think.

One way of considering enterainment is to think of it as a spectrum,
with 'doing' at one end and 'watching' at the other.

"Quake" is 'doing' entertainment.  The customers use their skills to
be entertained.  "Saving Private Ryan" is 'watching' entertainment.
The customers observe in order to be entertained.

As applied to fencing, we can either attempt it as 'doing'
entertainment, as you've suggested, or as 'watching' entertainment,
which might be a more appropriate treatment, given the computer's
limited ability to permit players to actually fence.  There might be
some level at which the players can 'do' fencing, exploring a middle
point in the spectrum, but I would favor keeping the pace at a
normal one and trying to figure out what players can be 'doing' at
that pace.  For example, the player decision to be aggressive,
defensive, go for a specific type of injury or score, favor a
certain location, etc. could all be part of the player's 'doing'
activity, while the 'watching' activity of seeing the movement of
the fencers can be additional entertainment.  In that case, the
character has the skill of fencing, while the player drives the
larger-scale activity of the encounter.

In a text MUD, I don't see the fencing happening unless you do the
trick of altering the pace of the game, which is problematic in a
multi-user environment.  Certainly if a writer were to hand-author a
fencing match, readers would be entertained if they were in any way
an afficianado of fencing.  I wonder what the computer can do,
however, to make descriptions of a fencing match be anything near
that in entertainment value.

I used to be in the camp of having players 'do' everything.  I'm
getting more and more into the attitude of having players 'watch'
more stuff.  For me, the classic example is having players control
the eating habits of characters.  There really is no 'doing' with
respect to eating.  But I can imagine watching my character eat and
I can imagine me enjoying that.  Seeing somebody really enjoy a good
meal can be entertaining.  But it requires some serious visual and
audial treatment.  Far more than current games would go anywhere
near.  In Asheron's Call, eating consists of the character's hand
moving to its mouth, followed by a crunching sound, as if an apple
was being bitten into.  I'm imagining a dwarf noisily tucking into a
rack of lamb with bread and a goblet of wine in a tavern.

So I guess my maxim is "If you can't make it interesting to do, make
it interesting to watch.  If you can't make it interesting to watch,
drop it."  I would make fencing have a strong watch component and
less of a do component - relative to actual fencing.

JB

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