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

[Mike Shaver]

On Sep 10, Justin Coleman wrote:

> Grossly unfair to those who do things "right", i.e. in character,
> seeing and hearing only what their character can see and hear,
> wouldn't you say?

Why is it unfair for someone else to play the game another way?
Some people roleplay their Paladins such that they never refuse a
request for help from a virtuous maiden, which is likely to be a
more 'difficult' way to play than just hacking and slashing through
a dungeon, and never taking the risk of helping with a corpse
retrieval or a risky quest, etc.  Are the people who just min-max
class/race/alignment/_behaviour_ for ease of advancement being
unfair?  Are they in competition for some reason other than the fact
that they choose to be?  People who want to play the game "right"
should do that, and enjoy it that way.  People who want to advance
at the absolute optimal pace should, I guess, play with whatever
advantage they think is legal and fair to themselves, and enjoy the
race against the monster generator, savoring every pellet that drops
from the experience bar. =)

I don't understand why the presence of an intangible helper would be
out of character, either.  If a game added a scrying spell that
could look around corners or see through someone else's eyes --
heck, a really good stealth-type character who can sneak past the
guards unseen and come back with recon -- would you have the same
complaint?

  (Remember: it's not an exploit if it's in the change log.)

If the game makes your level of achievement affect my enjoyment of
the game, such as a fully open PvP world with the usual inter-level
imbalances, _and_ you effectively penalize players for playing
"well" vs. "game-reward optimally", then the players who play the
game "well" have already lost.  This is probably one reason that we
see more and more games coming out in the "massively-multiplayer
lobby, single-player or small-group game" -- sorry,
_instanced_content_ model.  Oh, Battle.net, how I've missed you!

Mike
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