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

[Michael Tresca]

From: Crosbie Fitch [mailto:crosbie at cyberspaceengineers.org]

> Why not have ghosting that is closer to the concept of 'ghost',
> i.e. a ghost is a dead avatar, and you may only haunt the
> territory that you explored whilst alive.  Thus whilst you will
> have some supernatural knowledge (that you can blab on IRC) at
> least it's limited to some extent (the ghost can't travel into new
> territory). This means that people talking to the ghost will not
> really be sure whether the ghost is providing information from
> memory, or because they're present.

> That's another aspect of ghosting. If no-one but the ghost
> themselves knows where they are, then it's not too easy for other
> players to know whether they're getting the true picture or being
> misled.

> You could also do some technical jiggery pokery to detect/prohibit
> ghosts on the same LAN as a player.

> You could also give the ghost some 'kinetic points', to enable
> them to have a brief but minial effect on the virtual world once
> per day, e.g. scribble in the dust, open/close/slam a door, etc.

We did this.  We have "phantoms" on RetroMUD now who exist in an
entirely different but parallel universe.  Still, that's not really
the point.  Point being after awhile, the amount of effort that you
spend to keep ghosts from abusing their powers or being abused
rapidly become too costly.  You end up focusing so much on catering
to a particular play type (explorer) when you can cater to them in a
wide variety of other ways that don't take nearly much effort.

Mike "Talien" Tresca
RetroMUD Administrator
http://michael.tresca.net
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