[MUD-Dev2] Specialization

[Sean Howard]

"Michael Hartman" <mlist at thresholdrpg.com> wrote:

> Actually, it strikes me as insane that you could just randomly decide to
> be an absolute expert or master in a totally different highly skilled
> profession.

Really? I do that all the time. I am completely capable of following my
skills to my level of interest. If I'm interested in being a master at a
highly skilled profession, I will be. And have been. I won't let some
"game designer" tell me what I'm capable of.

> Look at Michael Jordan. He was one of the greatest athletes on the
> planet. He had mastered basketball. He decided to try baseball. Now,
> baseball was not even something totally new to him, and yet he still
> didn't have the time to master the skills enough to become a pro.

Yeah, but the difference is, he was at least allowed the chance to find
out. Nobody told him up front, you'll never be the best at baseball, so
I'm not even going to let you try. And, as I recall, he was a pro for a
short period of time. Maybe not the best, as he was in Basketball, but he
was certainly a capable baseball player.

But sports metaphors are so... lame. Why don't you try explaining to me
why Leonardo da Vinci couldn't be an engineer, artist, mathematician,
scientist, sculptor, botanist, writer, or musician? Or why Thomas
Jefferson couldn't be president, design his own college, write books, and
produce his own version of the bible? Heck, Bruce Wayne couldn't be a
vigilante and billionaire philanthropist? Don't even get me started on
Buckaroo Banzai, who was both a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon.
Fictional, sure, but so is the character I play in World of Warcraft. Why
can't I play Sherlock Holmes? Why am I forever doomed to playing dead
hooker number 4?

> There are many careers that take DECADES to even become competent at a
> professional level, and more decades to master. A 50 year old lawyer
> can't just decide to be a doctor and start practicing medicine the next
> day. He probably cannot even start medical school. He would need years
> of science and schooling before he could even begin. The reality is that
> by the time he mastered being a lawyer, he was too old to begin trying
> to be a doctor.

First off all, nobody is tell him he can't be both. Second, I've had a
teacher in my computer science class who was a 50 year old lawyer who then
went back to school in computer science. It does happen. Third, you are
assuming that it takes 50 years to master anything. This is simply not the
case. There is no skill on heaven or earth that requires that sort of time
to reach master of, unless you dedicate only a small portion of your
attention to it. That whole lifetime to master stuff is complete bull. In
every field, the masters of it tend to be younger.

Finally, you are exaggerating the point considerably by selecting two
completely separate professions that require the most amount of schooling
with zero overlap. In videogames, where there is no a schooling
requirement for emulated skillsets and where most skills overlap in
function and form (why can a mage and cleric not learn the same spells?
Why can't a warrior use a bow or a hunter a broadsword? Why do you have to
be level 75 to wield a sword that is exactly the same size and weight as
the one you equipped at level 4?), the division between professions and
ability is entirely arbitrary and impractical.

> So if some guy dedicated his entire life to the mastery of magic, he is
> in absolutely no position to just pick up a sword and report to Knight
> School.

Okay, but what if he dedicated his life to swordcraft AND magic? You are
working backwards. Your position assumes that in order to be an expert at
magic, one can only have studied magic. It refuses to take into account
the exceptionally smart or talented or into alternative practices that,
while perhaps more difficult, are no less effective.

> An actual knight would have had decades of practice with toy
> swords and such as a child growing up.

One would assume that in a world populated by goblins and demon knights,
all kids would. I played cowboys and indians as a kid. I didn't grow up to
be a marksman. One would likewise assume that in order to protect oneself
and one's family, becoming capable at defense and combat as required by
one's environment would be par for the course. In a world with goblins
attacking every caravan, I'd think your average peasant would be just as
skilled with a sword as a knight would. Being a knight is considerably
more than just swordcraft. There is a lot of things which contribute to
the title. One could easily be skilled with a sword without needing to
belong to the king's court.

> Once you go down a certain life
> career path, you cannot simply switch to another one after you have
> already reached the age of mastery in the first. This is especially true
> for the types of career paths in your typical MMO type game. Those are
> uber-careers that involve more than just a job. They are significant
> life choices that affect your social status, your physical makeup,
> everything. You can't change that on the fly. It is certainly not
> "insane" that this situation exists.

Again, you are working backwards. One could easily study magic and
swordcraft simultaneously - their social status, physical makeup, and
everything else would reflect this as well.

-- 
Sean Howard