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

[cruise]

Thus spake John Buehler...
> That's where I am.  Let the players decide their own ethics of gameplay and
> then let the like-minded players get together.  All the game designer needs
> to do is present a context that permits the players to find each other and
> then some privacy so they can experience the game's entertainment in groups
> of their own choosing.  Hopefully, they'll slowly learn which ethics work
> and which ones don't.  Kinda like not following the Bible.

It's the privacy section that is possibly the hardest one. Instancing 
has been an attempt to solve this, but then people complain that we're 
devaluing the concept of a MMOG - whereas I think something of this kind 
is /precisely/ what is needed in an MMOG to stop the entire playerbase 
from constantly infighting.