[MUD-Dev] [NEC] 2.8: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (fwd)

[Jeff Cole]

From: Michael Tresca
> From: Jeff Cole [mailto:jeff.cole at mindspring.com]

>> Ah, but consider whether such effective business- or
>> state-imposed structures can be imposed by designers.  I don't
>> think so.  Among other things, designers do not have the leverage
>> to impose the same structures on large populations as businesses
>> and states impose on their large populations.

> How not?

> I work at a Fortune 5 company.  All that's used there is a pyramid
> structure established from the start.

> What, exactly, do you need to have the leverage to influence
> people on a massive universe that you build and prep before
> opening it to the resident population?

> Businesses do not have that luxury and still do it.

Governments have the coercive force of the state.  Businesses have
the leverage of firing the employee.  Perhaps you are so integral to
your company that you can more or less resist such leverage but for
the vast majority of employees, that is not the case.

However, in the MMO*, the customers are paying to play.  To a large
extent, the point of games are to escape the "structure" imposed by
the "real world."  As a developer, the only leverage you can exert
is that of the dealer over the junkie.

You would implement the structure to resist, regulate, or repair the
natural tendency of the population to degrade.  So, any in-game
structure analogous to business- state-imposed structures can be
only weakly imposed, if at all.

And what about those few (or more) who buck the structure?  Haven't
we repeatedly seen their disproportionate effect on the population?

Yrs. Affcty,
Jeff Cole
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