[MUD-Dev] ghost mode (was Re: SW:G)

[John Buehler]

Tess Lowe writes:
> Amanda Walker wrote:

>> Speaking personally, I'd love a game with a "ghost" mode.  In
>> ghost mode, forget the advancement ladder, just fly around
>> sightseeing.

> At the risk of performing a 'me too', this absolutely strikes a
> chord with me. When I play any sort of adventure game, be they
> text or graphical, single player or online, the one thing that
> draws me on is the desire to be able to see all the content at
> will.

My own design approach to this is to permit someone to look over the
shoulder of another player's character.  This has the benefit of
ensuring that there are no spoilers or spies running around.  For
example, in Dark Age of Camelot, someone flying all over creation as
a ghost would make a great PvP spy (I assume the ghost would be
realm-specific).

But I'm definitely a 'me too' on this one.  Being able to piggyback
on another player's character to not only observe the game world,
but to also observe how that person is playing the game would seem
to be a big win.  Hopping from character to character in order to
see the world as it is being actively explored appeals to me.

A downside to the ghost approach would be triggering portals and
other such transport mechanisms that take characters to alternate
'dimensions' (coordinate spaces) or simply accelerate travel.
Unless the portal mechanism is triggered by location, a ghost will
be unable to take advantage of the mechanism (barring customization
for ghosts).

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