[MUD-Dev2] The Great Mud Survey

[Maxi Rose]

*** WARNING! Much tl;dr ahead. Read at your own risk. XD ***

On Sat, 30 Dec 2006, David Johansson wrote:

> that they "hate PK" or "hate griefers" - But, when they are put to the test
> and thrown into a hostile PK enviroment for a while, they will understand
> the additional dynamics of the game and begin to fathom the games fourth
> dimension, politics.

Except a great number of griefers weren't interested in politics. They
didn't have "turf wars", they didn't care who did what to whom. They only
cared that they ruined someone's fun.

Anyone familiar with early Ultima Online days remember a certain Ronald
McDonald? I forget what his guild's name was but I remember their motto
very well. "Our motto is we want to grief you so badly that you quit the
game and delete your accounts." These fine gentlemen cared NOTHING for
politics, for the art of war, for turf or gang fights. They LITERALLY
wanted to make people CRY in REAL LIFE.

I played UO from the day it opened to the public. I almost got in on beta
but didn't send my mail in time. I remember "Ye Olde Dayes". All I wanted
to do was make things. I'd heard UO had a vibrant skill set, a thriving
crafter track. I paid my money under the auspices that gameplay would
mimic real life as much as possible for the very first MMO, and a
fantasy-themed one, at that. I expected players to hunt me if I looked
like I had anything worth stealing. I even expected players to hunt me on
the off chance I might have something good but with no proof.

I NEVER EXPECTED PLAYERS TO HUNT ME, KILL ME, TAKE MY MEASLY
STARTING/PEASANT ITEMS, WAIT FOR ME TO GO BACK TO THE HEALERS AND
RESSURECT, COME BACK FOR MY CORPSE, KILL ME AGAIN, AD NAUSEAM. I also
didn't expect these charming people to figure out when I got sick of going
back for my corpse, so they had someone follow me to see where I'd go NEXT
and proceed to kill-and-kill-and-kill me again. Each time, they knew I had
nothing more than a "death robe", the robe provided to cover your avatar's
nakedness upon ressurection. There were no "mad skillz" to be gained from
killing a fresh newbie. I had no "phat lewt" to steal. They knew this. And
UO SPECIFICALLY designed the world so that peaceful players like myself
HAD to go out into unguarded territory to be able to do anything truly
useful, leaving us open to these "players of politics", as you so kindly
called them.

Do you truly believe we who dislike PKing are just a few whiny, snivelling
babies who need mommy to hold our hands when we play and help explain the
bad parts so we don't have nightmares when she tucks us in at night? Do
you believe a company like EA would make a PK-free area in UO if our
opinions were so negligible, our voices so few and simpering?

> You know just as well as I do that communities police themselves, and that
> griefers are sorted out quickly (as long as game mechanics don't disallow
> this). But, even so, many game masters, big or small, listen to the child
> who screams "I don't want it, I don't want it" and think to themselves:
> "Hey, that whole PK thing seems like a bad idea, let's scrap it, we don't
> want griefing!"

Players will police themselves? AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I demand a player log
on when I do, at 2 in the morning, and police the game for me. In fact, if
some unpaid, uncompensated player doesn't come keep griefers off of me, I
will complain loudly that other players are not good samaritans and aren't
selfless enough to follow me everywhere and escort me! Pay them, you say?
I hope they don't mind being paid with bird corpses/roasted bird, chicken
feathers, random balls of yarn, and the 2gp I culled from that bunny that
nearly killed me in my newbie fight with it. Frankly, no newbie makes
enough that I'd WANT whatever they could pay.

"What about those good guys who DO go out there to be heroes and save
people?!" Again, I'm on a totally different time schedule than most
people. I work an evening shift job which means most of my playing happens
after midnight. I don't know too many players who want to stay awake just
for me so they can protect me and be paid in random garbage I find on the
ground or in the few corpses of low-level animals that don't manage to
kill me first!

> No matter how many polls or how open you are to your gaming community,
> swallowing their ideas or whatnot, you will never find the "perfect game" -
> Fishing might work in "Lands of FruityFairies" while PK might work in
> "ShadowDeathWolfSlayer Realms" - But combine the two, and you might be able
> to create a world, where some poor fisherman is constantly being griefed by
> the evil PKers. One day, one of the guys that prefer only to fish, gets
> pissed off enough to stand up and decide to do something about those
> griefers. He stands up, uses the communitiy to channel his words and
> thoughts, and becomes a figurine for the fishermen, the fishermen have had
> enough. The fishermen rebell against the griefers, takes to arms and kills
> the bandits. Now THAT, is a virtual world to speak of.
>
> During this fictional "uprising", the guys who just wanted to fish, are
> having a blast, discover the meaning of a community, and perhaps realizes
> that fighting can be entertaining as well and hence, proving that eventhough
> they said that they only want to fish, they actually enjoyed the whole PKing
> thing as well.

Again, as a low level crafter, doing that once might have been fun. Doing
it EVERY SINGLE DAY was NOT. YOU may not find the monsters/mobs/AI
challenging enough, but let me assure you that I, the newbie, found them
to be GREAT fun! I was MUCH more proud of myself for defeating a monster
than dealing with any PK because at least a monster, I knew I had a
fighting chance, if I just studied them well and used good tactics. I
never beat griefers. The best I did was have to run away, leaving behind
whatever cool stuff was too heavy for me to run with and live. I never
considered it fun then. I don't now.

Log onto UO and go to Tramm.. oh excuse me, I'm sure you call it "CareBear
Land". See how many people are there. Now gate to Felucca. See how empty
it is? Want to know where all the PKers are? THEY'RE IN TRAMMEL HUNTING
THE MONSTERS IN THE HIGHER LEVEL DUNGEONS AND OTHER AREAS!

UO did it right. Give people a choice. Funny thing is, when we were given
a choice, guess what we all chose? To quote Bugs Bunny, "What a
co-inky-dink!"