[MUD-Dev] Re: DGN: Why give the players all the numbers?

[Amanda Walker]

On Wednesday, September 17, 2003, at 06:25  PM, Chanur Silvarian wrote:

> In chess, though the rules are clearly defined and the winner is
> easily identifiable there is no moving experience bar showing me
> how much more I must study/play to beat my opponent.

Nonetheless, people have created approximations of them: the FIDE
(World Chess Federation) maintains both a rank-ordered list of
players and a numerical rating which is an approximate metric of
each one's skill:
<http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=B0210>.

This is perhaps a perfect example: if simple metrics aren't
available, people will make them up on their own, compare them with
others, and niggle over a point here and a point there.  If the
rating scheme changes, people shout "NERF!", debates rage about
ratings reform in Chess Daily, and so on.

I am not making this up.  Most of the sports world is about
statistics and figures of merit, accurate or not.  At least in
modern, urban society, numbers are what people use to evaluate
themselves and others, whether it's salary, number of roller
coasters ridden per year, chess rating, SAT score, or whatever.
Now, admittedly, this does seem to be something of a "guy thing",
but any competitor in any arena will find a way to track progress
and keep score as closely as possible.

Which brings up another point: many people view MMORPGs as a venue
for competition with other players.  Comparing character stats,
trash talking in pvp, etc. are all directly analgous to what fans
and players do with sports.  Sports are, alas, the great American
metaphor.

To those of us who view MMO worlds as, say, artistic mediums, social
venues, interactive fiction, etc., keeping score may be fairly
pointless, but as long as there are sport-like aspects to a game,
the people who like that aspect will keep score by whatever means is
available.


Amanda Walker
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