<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun --> <!--X-From-R13: Qnyvona Fverfvnf Rnexybpx <pnyvonaNqnexybpx.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 16:14:28 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 199807232316.RAA13969#darklock,com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org --> <!--X-Reference: XFMail.980707032311.matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org --> <!--X-Reference: 199807231720.KAA02994#under,engr.sgi.com --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:caliban#darklock,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="msg00322.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00324.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00322.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00329.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00323">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00323">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00323">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more 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: WIRED: Kilers have more fun </LI> <LI><em>From</em>: Caliban Tiresias Darklock <<A HREF="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 16:10:27 -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 10:20 AM 7/23/98 -0700, I personally witnessed J C Lawrence jumping up to say: > >Key here, and this is the lesson that M59, UOL, and company seem to >have been fighting, is the reverse of the old catechism of catching >more flies with honey You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, but if you really want to catch flies use rotten hamburger. >You can't stop players from trying to do things >you don't want them to do. They're going to try to do whatever enters >their tiny gourd like craniums. You can't stop it If you fight it >you'll just end up setting yourself up as the target de jour, and have >created an instant confrontational situation. "How can I work around >these stoopid admins?". Something I'm trying to do with my current game is to make the various things I want to discourage... distasteful. Not impossible, not administratively outlawed, but distasteful. To use a specific example, if you destroy the property of the provisional government you receive punishment in the form of monetary fines. Since players are ostensibly military volunteers, the destruction of a player is... destruction of military property, which is government property, which results in a fine. A pretty big and nasty fine, too. So if you get REALLY rich, yeah, you can kill a couple players. But you'll have to work your ass off to get enough money that you can even seriously consider it. And the underlying logic is completely understandable. There's no "artificial" restriction, and no admin interference. There are laws here, and if you break them, you get punished. That's the end of it. As David Eddings once put it, "The snake is a very logical creature. If you annoy him, he will bite you. He rarely holds a grudge." >I have intensely disliked reputation systems for a long while now as >being both excessively simplistic and presenting a too easily >trivialised model for players to manipulate for something I see as >very multi-dimensional. I've always wondered exactly what a reputation system does for the game other than divide your players into groups and "sides" that the game can automatically sort for the convenient reference of any and all sides. I don't see any benefit to it. What is it for? To determine NPC reactions? To determine magic item ownership? There seems to be this "good/evil" division we create in our games, and I just don't see the point. About eight years ago, I scrapped the entire alignment system from my AD&D campaign, and nobody has ever missed it. I've never had to work around anything in my adventure design, I never had any big issues to resolve, and nothing went heinously wrong. As opposed to the time I decided to do away with the class/experience system, which rapidly became a nightmare. The alignment and reputation ideas seem ubiquitous, but the one question I have never heard answered is: why? What purpose does it serve? Does anyone use it for that purpose? What do people here really think about the reputation/alignment/whatever system that we seem to be working so hard to perfect? </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="00054" HREF="msg00054.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Matt Chatterley <matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org></LI></UL></LI> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="00322" HREF="msg00322.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> J C Lawrence <claw#under,engr.sgi.com></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00322.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00324.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00322.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00329.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00323"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00323"><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: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00039" HREF="msg00039.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Thu 02 Jul 1998, 20:43 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00054" HREF="msg00054.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></strong>, Matt Chatterley <a href="mailto:matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org">matt#mpc,dyn.ml.org</a>, Tue 07 Jul 1998, 02:24 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00120" HREF="msg00120.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></strong>, Marian Griffith <a href="mailto:gryphon#iaehv,nl">gryphon#iaehv,nl</a>, Thu 09 Jul 1998, 19:36 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00322" HREF="msg00322.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Thu 23 Jul 1998, 20:23 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00323" HREF="msg00323.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></strong>, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Thu 23 Jul 1998, 23:14 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00329" HREF="msg00329.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></strong>, s001gmu <a href="mailto:s001gmu#nova,wright.edu">s001gmu#nova,wright.edu</a>, Fri 24 Jul 1998, 15:46 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00059" HREF="msg00059.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></strong>, CJones <a href="mailto:CJones#aagis,com">CJones#aagis,com</a>, Tue 07 Jul 1998, 17:41 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00068" HREF="msg00068.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></strong>, Petri Virkkula <a href="mailto:pvirkkul#cc,hut.fi">pvirkkul#cc,hut.fi</a>, Wed 08 Jul 1998, 00:10 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00060" HREF="msg00060.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Tue 07 Jul 1998, 18:04 GMT </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>