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<H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] Character development [was Re: ]</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] Character development [was Re: ] </LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: Matt Chatterley &lt;<A HREF="mailto:matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org">matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org</A>&gt;</LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 08:11:28 +0000 (GMT)</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:neddy#itl,net">neddy#itl,net</A></LI>
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<PRE>
On Mon, 23 Mar 1998, J C Lawrence wrote:
&gt; On Fri, 20 Mar 1998 02:07:02 PST8PDT 
&gt; Matt Chatterley&lt;matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org&gt; wrote:
&gt; &gt; On Tue, 17 Mar 1998, J C Lawrence wrote:
&gt; &gt;&gt; On Mon, 16 Mar 1998 21:16:49 GMT Richard Woolcock
&gt; &gt;&gt; &lt;KaVir#dial,pipex.com&gt; wrote: 
&gt; 
&gt; &gt;&gt;&gt; Character development is an important aspect of muds (for
&gt; &gt;&gt;&gt; example, would you play a mud where your character never saved?).
&gt; &gt;&gt; 
&gt; &gt;&gt; Err, yes.  Tron is a perfect example, if debateable as being a MUD.
&gt; 
&gt; &gt; Fascinating question - "If you remove 'character development' over
&gt; &gt; the long term, can you still have a successfu game?"
&gt; 
&gt; &gt; Perhaps not so interesting after brief thought - yes, you can. One
&gt; &gt; of the muds I used to play (and which I liked very much) was a
&gt; &gt; PK-only mud in a vaguely futuristic setting which focussed on high
&gt; &gt; violence, high damage, and short-term development (pick up better
&gt; &gt; weapons, gain a few hps, etc), and also on very short lives.
&gt; 
&gt; I posit:
&gt; 
&gt;   Character development is fundamental to the concept and definition
&gt; of a MUD.  The only variation in application of this definition
&gt; between games like Tron, and say LambdaMOO, Duris, Sojourn, MUD2, etc,
&gt; is that the character development occurs solely in the human player
&gt; for the former, and partially in the virtual character for the
&gt; others.  This creates a scale of development locale with some MUDs
&gt; having the balance of their character development in the human player, 
&gt; and some almost utterly in the virtual character.

Great take! This covers all perma-death games which enforce a high level
of fatality by the way (personally I do the latter but not the former);
transferring game-related development (this might be a better term than
character development?) to the player, rather than the character.

You develop socially, and your game-playing skills develop - just as one
might imagine a character developing (although the *actual* development is
different in ways, rather than its appearance; its mostly social and of
course 'learning' based). It might be fun to create a game of this sort,
although it has been done before (one case in point: PK muds which don't
allow the character to develop beyond his equipment, but where more
experienced players will do better).

-- 
Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
Spod: <A  HREF="http://user.super.net.uk/~neddy/spod/spod.html">http://user.super.net.uk/~neddy/spod/spod.html</A>



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<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00846" HREF="msg00846.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Character development [was Re: ]</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> J C Lawrence &lt;claw#under,engr.sgi.com&gt;</LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>Re: [MUD-Dev] Time Limits?</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00732" HREF="msg00732.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Time Limits?</A></strong>, 
Jon A. Lambert <a href="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</a>, Tue 17 Mar 1998, 06:04 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00743" HREF="msg00743.html">No Subject</A></strong>, 
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Tue 17 Mar 1998, 19:35 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00782" HREF="msg00782.html">Character development [was Re: ]</A></strong>, 
Matt Chatterley <a href="mailto:matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org">matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org</a>, Fri 20 Mar 1998, 09:56 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00846" HREF="msg00846.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Character development [was Re: ]</A></strong>, 
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Mon 23 Mar 1998, 18:42 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00890" HREF="msg00890.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Character development [was Re: ]</A></strong>, 
Matt Chatterley <a href="mailto:matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org">matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org</a>, Wed 25 Mar 1998, 08:12 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
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</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00905" HREF="msg00905.html">No Subject</A></strong>, 
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Thu 26 Mar 1998, 17:32 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00396" HREF="msg00396.html">DBs and Events</A></strong>, 
Greg Munt <a href="mailto:greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk">greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk</a>, Tue 10 Feb 1998, 18:30 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00397" HREF="msg00397.html">Re: [MUD-Dev]  DBs and Events</A></strong>, 
Nathan Yospe <a href="mailto:yospe#hawaii,edu">yospe#hawaii,edu</a>, Tue 10 Feb 1998, 19:40 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00399" HREF="msg00399.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] DBs and Events</A></strong>, 
Greg Munt <a href="mailto:greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk">greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk</a>, Wed 11 Feb 1998, 10:50 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>

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