[MUD-Dev] When Will Player-Avatar Integrity Be a Feature of Persistent Worlds?

[vladimir cole]

The text below started off as a bit of a rant on my guild website
(www.scienceofwar.net) but I've tweaked it for this list and added a
few questions pertinent to the design of MUDS/MMOGs/PWs (whatever
you want to call 'em) at the end of the post.

---

Issue: Integrity doesn't exist in online environments yet.

What is integrity? What does it mean to have it? The usual
definition for it is "Moral soundness; honesty; freedom from
corrupting influence or motive (used especially with reference to
the fulfillment of contracts, trusts, and the like)." Or, in a less
high-falutin' definition that comes directly from a private message
sent to me by a guild member, "I gave my word, and try to keep my
word. It's all I have that will really ever be totally mine. No one
can take it away from me, and only I can make it worthless."

Unfortunately, integrity doesn't exist in Everquest. Too many people
consider the promises that they make in this game as ethereal and
easy to break as an End-User License Agreement (EULA) and too many
people treat the relationships that they develop with others in this
game as easy to ditch as uninstalling the Everquest client software.

Examples are numerous. Here's a recent example. We have one dude who
writes, "You are all the coolest, smartest, and fun to be around
individuals I have ever met in my life, and I truly consider you
friends." (Dec. 2002) but who silently guildremoves and puts in a
server movelog without telling a soul. Is that how you'd bid
"friends" goodbye if you had been out drinking with them five nights
per week for eight months in a row? That's not integrity. That's
cowardice and dishonesty of a level that's only possible in an
online game. I could list numerous examples here, but the theme is
the same: people making promises that they do not keep.

It's a primal flaw in the social fabric of the game. At *any* time
someone who has promised to pay back that loan, return that favor,
or simply stay with your organization for a minimum term may go back
on that promise and slink away in the darkness, secure in his
anonymity.  There are exceptions to this rule, but unfortunately
they're a rare breed that becomes increasingly jaded (and less
likely to trust anyone) as each subsequent liar abuses the natural
tendency of humans to believe a statement when the words "I promise"
precede it.

Questions:

When will players be able to expect other players to act with the
same level of integrity that they would act with out of game? Will
there need to be some sort of cross-game Avatar disbursement system
that allows individuals to register avatars across a number of
current and future systems? Think of an app like Microsoft Avatar
(not yet created) that embodies the functionality of Microsoft
Wallet with avatar management features and that works for all
current and future MMOG's. Imagine boxes on storeshelves touting the
merits of being able to carry your UO or AC avatar over to EQ6 and
bragging about their UniversalAvatar compatibility.

Think about the cottage industries that would spring up around the
idea of persistant, cross-world avatars. Numerous companies would
jockey for the opportunity to provide an online reputation system
modelled on the ebay seller feedback system.

Would this ever happen? Is the population of players who want a
solid reputation system that they can trust of greater monetary
value to game designers than the segment of players who want simply
to escape their dullard real-world personnas and act out their
psycho-griefer fantasies online? (That's harsh -- I know -- so to
put it another way, would a game developer's support for a
persistent avatar standard net more accounts than it would lose?)

When will the first MMOG launch that mandates biometric
identification in order to control and use an avatar? Selling your
level 200 toon that's been buffed to the gills might be a tad bit
more difficult if that toon is tied to a retina scan. Biometric
verification seems to be a natural choice to quash the deleterious
effects of ebay on informal, in-game trust systems. I'm guessing
early 2007 on this just to throw out a date.

When will the first MMOG launch that supports avatar names that were
created in a different MMOG system? (2015 is my guess.)

And when will people feel that it's the right thing to do MORALLY to
behave in these worlds in the same way that they behave outside of
virtual worlds? Right now, I'm seeing quotes from players that they
feel completely absolve them of all responsibility towards their
fellow players. Here's a pretty typical sentiment. The quote's only
been edited to remove profanity:

--<cut>--
  News Flash...Its a game. The reason people buy the games and play
  them is to relax and have a break from responsibility. People dont
  pick up the latest game so they can add another job to their
  plate. Sorry, never ever should a game make you feel like you
  "have to" do anything other than play the game when you want
  to...end of story.
--<cut>--

Problem is, the person that wrote that promised his guild that he'd
play for two months AFTER the date that he looted a particular
item. He played for two more days after the transaction before
ebaying. He felt no remorse for this broken promise and he felt no
need to be consistent with it.

Are virtual worlds doomed to this level of disconnection forever?


Thanks for letting me ramble.

- vlad
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