[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] What is a game? (again)was:[Excellentcommentary on Vanguard's diplomacy system]

[Damion Schubert]

On 4/5/07, Caliban Darklock <cdarklock at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 4/5/07, Raph Koster <raph at areae.net> wrote:
> >
> > In almost every virtual world, the play field is not the entire space;
> > in fact, it's typically a very narrowly defined space that often doesn't
> > include much "space" at all.
>
> And as long as the toy doesn't intrude on that space, it's not been
> introduced to the game. But once it does, some amount of damage is
> done. The harmonica player may only represent a minor distraction, but
> a distraction of any size is destructive to the game. Once the
> distraction is large enough, it makes playing the game impossible. It
> may be a single distraction, or a collection of them. It's like the
> Chinese "death of a thousand cuts".


I admit, this way of thinking somewhat baffles me.  As the admitted
advocate of 'gamey games' on this list, I have found that most players
find MMOs to be enriched by toyetic behaviors, such as emoting,
chatting, player run weddings, funerals or beauty pageants, etc.

The one exception is when a player isn't doing his team responsibility
due to toyetic behavior -the classic example being the healer not
healing his raid because he's cybering with someone else.  But this
isn't, I'd argue, any more destructive to the world than any of the
other reasons a group or raid might fail.

Usually, the ones who complain vocally about their play experiences
disrupted are the ones playingw with the 'toys'.  The roleplayers who
get no respect.  The weddings and funerals that get crashed.
Because the toys have no codification in their game rules as to what
exactly is acceptable, it's open to interpretation, and by extension,
mischief.

--d