[MUD-Dev] PVP and perma-death

[Steven King]

Ola wrote:
> "Steven King" <steve at madrogue.com> writes:

>> On PvP: I play/played a MUD where all hostile actions against
>> another player required a 500-word email explaining the
>> situation.  You were tagged by the system with a PvP ID number
>> when you killed or assisted in killing another player.  If the
>> system did not receive the email within a time period, you were
>> not allowed to gain experience and the penalties accrued from
>> there, since the admin monitor things closely.  That was quite
>> enough to keep PvP actions low, and even then they were always
>> warranted and in-character.  Of course, to gain experience after
>> each level, you also had to write a long essay on why you should
>> be allowed to gain more experience, so I always thought the admin
>> just like reading.

> Actually, that is an interesting idea for a role-playing
> environment. At least if you wrap it up in the fictional world
> somehow. E.g: you have to apply to some school master to receive
> more training. If you mandate that the essay is in-character, and
> only accept those which are in line with the character
> description, then you probably could discourage some
> non-roleplayers from playing... while still having fun game
> mechanics. You could do the same for the PvP: after killing
> another "hero" (Player Character which is under some God's
> protection) you need to explain your actions to the God you
> worship through a long prayer. If you are unable to please the God
> the you will be be punished.

> This is quite in line with what I suggested: if your game design
> attract play styles which you don't want to cater for, then
> introduce thresholds or locks which makes remaining in the game
> less attractive for that subset of the population. Roleplayers
> would probably find it fun to write such "letters", at least if
> they get some kind of entertaining response (written by other
> roleplayers, obviously).

I like roleplaying and would stay in-character while playing the
game, but I felt that I was being held back because any action that
my character would normally take required a 500-word essay on why.
Try playing an evil, greedy, morally-flexible thief/assassin in a
game with those rules.  The one thing keeping me from playing my
character to the fullest was an out-of-character restriction.  The
essays were required to be in-character, but they had no ties to the
game, itself.

For a roleplay-centric game such as that, the reasons for not
performing PvP acts should be in-character.  Attacking players and
sentient NPCs while in an area patrolled by guards was dangerous
in-character because if you didn't kill the target in the first
round, they called for the guards, who would hunt you down and kill
you.  THAT is a great reason (in-character) for not performing PvP
acts.  The challenge, then, became to ambush in non-patrolled areas
or be able to slip away from the guards and hide out until they
cancelled their search.  I had a manor built in town with a secret
exit that would lead me out of town for that specific reason.

What I'm trying emphasize is immersion.  Rather than pulling the
player out of the game to write a 500-word essay to curtail PvP,
have higher stakes in-game.  In-character jail time, death, loss of
equipment, fines, etc. are all good penalties for "illegal" acts
in-game.  For Virtual Worlds (where the game intends to model
reality), breaking immersion should be the last thing a designer
should do.

Steve
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