<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: what's fun? --> <!--X-From-R13: X Q Znjerapr <pynjNhaqre.rate.ftv.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 14:22:32 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 199806262121.OAA06700#under,engr.sgi.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: 199806161806.NAA12944#rgate2,ricochet.net --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: what's fun?</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg01220.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg01222.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg01076.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg01067.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#01221">Author</A> | <A HREF="#01221">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#01221">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: what's fun?</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: what's fun? </LI> <LI><em>From</em>: J C Lawrence <<A HREF="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 14:21:52 -0700</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> On Tue, 16 Jun 1998 10:53:23 -0700 Mike Sellers<mike#bignetwork,com> wrote: > Here's a point that was raised recently in another discussion, and > that I thought might interest people here: Part one is, what is your > succinct yet broadly-applicable answer to the question "why do > people play on your mud?" To be able to create an effect, preferably lasting, on others and on an enjoyable shared fantasy. or alternatively "what sorts of play are > you trying to reward on your mud?" > Part the second is, "what do you do to maintain/enforce this?" I rather like the idea of an administrative prime directive with an associated manrta. Perhaps: "Only make administrative decisions that apply to the entire user base." With the converse: "Never make an administrative decision which is targeted at or only effective on a subset of the player base. > What is it that we consider "player fun" after all? Mot of it really boils down to the achievement of goals. The achievement of, and progress towards the achievement of goals is "fun". Not achieving goals, and failing to progress towards them (or even regressing), is not "fun". > Does it all come back to Bartle's suits? Anhh, that merely attempts to classify goals. > And how do we react when two players' otherwise valid forms of "fun" > collide? We either do nothing, or we impose an arbitrary in selecting one over the other. The important bit is to recognise it as an arbitrary. > This is the essential player-management task of any > admin/wizard/customer-service-type person. I'd be interested in how > people address this in their games. Way back in the dawns of time databases were kept in card files. It actually was a very clever system. In each card's upper edge was a row of square holes. Some holes had been punched out, forming divots in the card's upper edges, and some were still closed. +-------------------------+ +----------------+ | +-+ | | | | | | | | | | +-+ +-+ | | \ \ | | closed hole open hole | | | | This is a data card | | | . . A card would have many such open or closed holes along its top edge, Sometimes twenty or thirty, tho most I recall having a dozen or less. This formed a simple yet flexible indexing scheme. Each hole position represented an index key. You could a big long tray/drawer of such cards, and run a long thin rod down one of the hole "lines" in the card deck. Lift the rod and only those cards with closed holes in that postion would rise. The open hole cards would stay still. Voila! A simple SQL select statment! Run two rods thru different hols, lift them together, and select only the cards that were on both rods for an AND on two fields (or do successive selections). Actually the cards were typically metal and were address plates, but that is a different matter. The story done, I tend to look at game design and administrative character in the same way as I think of those rods piercing the card decks making their selections. The rods were blind, and infallible. The rods made no moral or otherwise soft decisions, and they applied themselves blindly to every card in the deck. I look at game design features the same way. I make changes, perhaps altering a game feature, adding a new one, or perhaps a twist, and its like running a new coloured rod thru the deck, possibly punching a new index line in the deck. It opens new possibilities, and it doesn't care who it applies them to. It adds a new line of bleeding colour to the deck that slowly fades out into the rest of the multi-coloured system. There's a pithy quote I'd love to remember so I could insert it in here having to do achieving governance of individuals by only governing the group (I think by a British Empire colonial). If you feel you have to pervert or special case the system to handle one particular player (or a small group of smallers), then you've already lost the war. Moving back to the meandering streams wending across the valley floor, you're attempting to damn a stream by dropping a rock in its way. Its not going to work -- the water will instead undercut, undermine, damn and overflow, and work around that stone as an obstacle to its rightful course in life. Its not going to nod politely and go do something else. Gravity doesn't work that way. -- J C Lawrence Internet: claw#null,net (Contractor) Internet: coder#ibm,net ---------(*) Internet: claw#under,engr.sgi.com ...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith... </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <UL><LI><STRONG>References</STRONG>: <UL> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="01076" HREF="msg01076.html">[MUD-Dev] what's fun?</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Mike Sellers <mike#bignetwork,com></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01220.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01222.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Analysis and specification - the dirty words o</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01076.html">[MUD-Dev] what's fun?</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01067.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: OT: Announcement</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#01221"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#01221"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Re: Is worse better?</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="01103" HREF="msg01103.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Is worse better?</A></strong>, Katrina McClelan <a href="mailto:kitkat#the486,bradley.edu">kitkat#the486,bradley.edu</a>, Wed 17 Jun 1998, 06:15 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01123" HREF="msg01123.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Is worse better?</A></strong>, Vadim Tkachenko <a href="mailto:vt#freehold,crocodile.org">vt#freehold,crocodile.org</a>, Thu 18 Jun 1998, 03:22 GMT </LI> </ul> </ul> </ul> </ul> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01078" HREF="msg01078.html">[MUD-Dev] [Fwd: Warfare on retromud.org 3000]</A></strong>, Richard Woolcock <a href="mailto:KaVir#dial,pipex.com">KaVir#dial,pipex.com</a>, Tue 16 Jun 1998, 18:29 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="01076" HREF="msg01076.html">[MUD-Dev] what's fun?</A></strong>, Mike Sellers <a href="mailto:mike#bignetwork,com">mike#bignetwork,com</a>, Tue 16 Jun 1998, 18:09 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01221" HREF="msg01221.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: what's fun?</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Fri 26 Jun 1998, 21:22 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01067" HREF="msg01067.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: OT: Announcement</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Tue 16 Jun 1998, 07:11 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01068" HREF="msg01068.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: OT: Announcement</A></strong>, s001gmu <a href="mailto:s001gmu#nova,wright.edu">s001gmu#nova,wright.edu</a>, Tue 16 Jun 1998, 14:31 GMT </LI> </UL> <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="01100" HREF="msg01100.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: OT: Announcement</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Wed 17 Jun 1998, 04:54 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01105" HREF="msg01105.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: OT: Announcement</A></strong>, s001gmu <a href="mailto:s001gmu#nova,wright.edu">s001gmu#nova,wright.edu</a>, Wed 17 Jun 1998, 14:57 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>