[MUD-Dev] Who Killed Miss Norway?

[Steven J. Owens]

On Fri, May 02, 2003 at 11:04:29AM +0100, Gubbs wrote:

> The death of a player is largely irrelevant in a transient fantasy
> world.  People come and go, if you're player base are more
> concerned with the RL events proported, not neccesarily well
> documented happings surrounding a particular player then
> ultimately what you have is a talker and not a RP game at all.

I'd say that's a critical point, and one I suspect is often
overlooked.  Like it or not, by definition these things are MULTI
user, and that means that, by definition, they're a medium for
social interaction.  I think it's a mistake to think you can (or
should) exclude that dimension from the game, when you should,
instead, be structuring your game design to take advantage of it.
 
> Obviously the strength of that argument varies dependant on the
> theme of the MUD/MUSH/MOO etc. But largely it is a source of mild
> to severe annoyance to many people in RP muds ..

There's a subtle, but important distinction between thematic issues
and the social dimension of the medium.  Blatantly unthematic
behavior and discussion damage suspension-of-disbelief of other
players, which is probably the major source of annoyance.
 
Steven J. Owens
puff at darksleep.com

"I'm going to make broad, sweeping generalizations and strong,
 declarative statements, because otherwise I'll be here all night and
 this document will be four times longer and much less fun to read.
 Take it all with a grain of salt." - Me at http://darksleep.com


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