[MUD-Dev] SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurttheMMOcommunity?

[David Wright]

On 5/17/05, John Buehler <johnbue at msn.com> wrote:

> I'm glad you like the general idea.  Remember that as soon as you
> give some rope to your players, they will start eyeing nearby
> trees limbs and other players' necks.  In other words, think of
> all the unpleasant things that could be written into an item's
> history - whether intentionally unpleasant or not.  I was hinting
> at that problem when I included the player name "Dave Rulz
> Everyone".

> If you trust your players, then this is less of an issue.

That is a very valid counter-point to the concept, particularly if
it was implemented with users able to write-once commments. In
addtion to your example: '/petition I misspelled some lore I was
writing in regards to item_98742, please remove comment_3742 from
said item, thanks!' and you've just introduced a new type of CS
problem.

This could be counter-acted by making the comments/logs as editable
anytime or editable within a certain timeframe or editable until
traded, however neither solves the issue of intentional deragatory
or otherwise inappropriate remarks...

Which could be handled in the same manner as any deragatory or
inappropriate remarks made anywhere else in the game... You could of
have some type of comments filter in the same manner as naming and
chat filters as a first defense, with player reporting and systemic
auditing used as needed, followed with noting occurances on a
players account should such comments repeatedly be an issue leading
to warnings, temp and perm bans.

Or going a little further, any comments entered by a prior holder of
said item, could be reported/rated down and hidden or ignored by the
current holder. Similar in a manner to slashdot comments or any
other forum that allows rating and prioritizing comments. This would
be to some extent, player policing themselves.

You could also simply avoid that whole issue in its entirety by
making the item logs report systemic information only and not allow
user comments at all. Simply making original looting, and subsequent
trades by whom and for what available, you provide the player a way
to make a more informed decision on the history of the item in
question without involving any CS.

Granted of course, some would consider this is all additional
'unneccessary' development work on top of what would be considered
normal base systems and content. But I would guess that there is
already a varying amount of logging taking place within a system,
this merely logs it differently, put's into a lore context and makes
it more available to the players.

None of this makes the idea any less 'neat' or useful.

To some, or many people, its the little things...

/nod
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