[MUD-Dev] Myst Online article at ferrago.co.uk

[shren]

On Tue, 22 Oct 2002, Coyote wrote:
> On Monday, October 21, 2002, Shren wrote:
>> On Mon, 21 Oct 2002, Kent Peterson wrote:
 
>>> Oh.  Hm.  But players are tremendously, tremendously efficient
>>> at solving and exploiting new areas within days of their going
>>> online - usually it's more a matter of hours, not days.  How do
>>> you keep it being an "explorer" game, so that the majority of
>>> players can still find and explore truly NEW areas, while still
>>> having the explorable areas be interesting and WORTH exploring
>>> (as opposed to vast tracts of randomly generated uninteresting
>>> wilderness)?
  
>> A momentary thought - I wonder if you can prevent the rate of
>> mass publication of game secrets by not giving anything a name.
>> Don't name places, don't name items, don't give out coordinates
>> to players.  Common names for things are critical for
>> communication.

> The only problem that I see with this is that players have an
> almost uncanny ability to come up with their own 'special' names
> for things even if you DO put a label on things. Helmets of Power
> quickly become HoP's, Wraith Reavers become Reavers, and that
> special whip that does great shocking damage becomes a lightning
> whip(or a LW). And, usually, if someone doesn't know what the term
> for something is, the other players quickly tell them (Oh, LW? 
> Best whip in the game!)

The examples you give are all shortenings of existing names, with
the exception of the whip.  What if there are different grades of
shocking whip, with slightly different pictures?

> How could you stop, or inhibit even, this type of thing without
> the players feeling like you're trying to control them?

Oh, it wouldn't *stop* people from giving things names.  Not at all.
Pre-ordained names are a favor that is done for MUD players that we
don't have in real life.  If I find a whip on the ground IRL, I
don't know that it is a Whip of Shocking which has a market value of
50 PPs.  It's a whip.

We've been giving players names - naming stuff for them - for so
long that it's become a preordained assumption that we will.  Why
should we?  Let them name the stuff themselves.  It most certainly
will slow the spread of guides, especially if you tell people with
sites full of pictures that they are doing unauthorized reproduction
of your art.

If you've got a fully rotatable 3D engine, then you can even tangle
with screenshots.  When a player looks at an item have it in a
random state of rotation.  It would thus be hard to id it from a
screenshot.

It's just an interesting thought, is all.


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