<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] (CDMag) Sosaria Cracked: Why OSI's great social experiment is doomed --> <!--X-From-R13: X Q Znjerapr <pynjNhaqre.rate.ftv.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 17:39:04 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 199810130037.RAA15831#under,engr.sgi.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] (CDMag) Sosaria Cracked: Why OSI's great social expe</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="msg00158.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00160.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00238.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00157.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00159">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00159">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00159">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] (CDMag) Sosaria Cracked: Why OSI's great social experiment is doomed</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] (CDMag) Sosaria Cracked: Why OSI's great social experiment is doomed </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>: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 17:37:19 -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> <A HREF="http://www.cdmag.com/Home/home.html?article=/articles/014/141/local_echo.html">http://www.cdmag.com/Home/home.html?article=/articles/014/141/local_echo.html</A> --<cut>-- Sosaria Cracked Why OSI's great social experiment is doomed Posted on 10/03/1998 The idea was a good one. Create a world, populate it with creatures, with an ecosystem, and with the skeleton of an economy. Then turn it over to the players to rule as they see fit. That was one of the basic tenets of the Ultima Online design team. A hands-off policy. It failed, of course. To be sure UO is still in operation, but the vibrance is gone from the world and my guess is that, though it is less than a year old, it is already seeing the twilight of its existence. Oh, it will survive until one of its serious competitors (Microsoft's Asheron's Call or Sony's Everquest being the most likely) drives the final nail in its coffin. And even then, as Origin Systems Inc. pulls the plug a devout few will fume and curse at the loss of the world of which they've become so much a part. It didn't have to be this way. OSI came so close to hitting the mark that it gave us a glimmer of what could...no, what will be, when someone gets it right. But they erred in their judgment of us, the gaming community. They gave us too much credit-assumed that we were honorable people who would play within the rules set forth, rather than strive so hard to twist them. Their first mistake was a cavalier attitude towards exploits, which allowed house break-ins. "Houses were never intended to be secure." was the official policy for a long time. Bug exploiters took this as a sign of encouragement, and soon enough breaking into a house was as easy as visiting a "UO Bugs" website and following the steps given there. This situation set the tone for things to come. OSI had built in a system of identifying criminals and such, but since bug exploiters weren't breaking any coded-in rules, they swaggered about with their Great Lord titles, sneering at the people they'd robbed. The victims in this charade had no recourse. If they attacked the Great Lords, they'd become evil, and thus a target for any notoriety player killer. The Game Masters (GMs) would do nothing, citing the above rule that houses weren't supposed to be secure. Thus were the victims left with an emotional melange of helplessness and rage. Eventually, OSI got a clue and revamped the notoriety system of good vs evil. This helped, for about two hours, until the same kinds of players who had ruined the first system found ways to exploit this system as well. The basis for many of the woes of the Ultima Online world lie in two areas. The first is that the GMs put the burden of proof on the victims. Thus a player can enter a town, fling hateful insults (racial and homophobic slurs ran rampant for a while) at dozens of players, and when a GM arrives on the scene, he/she will do nothing since he didn't actually see anything occur. No judgment can be made. Although large numbers of witnesses might come forth against the accused, OSI refuses to take on the role of jury. And nothing is done. The second problem lies in asking the players to enforce their own social strictures within the world, then giving them no more subtle method of punishment than death. Thus, if a character brazenly steals 1,000 gold coins from your backpack, and the game logic doesn't detect the theft, you are without recourse. You can see the gold vanish, see that the thief is the only one near, even suffer taunts from the lout, but without the game flagging the theft, the only option available is to kill the thief (and thereby earn a bad karma flag for your troubles). There is no way to overpower a character, to force him to empty his pockets. If a player is found guilty of a crime by a jury of his peers, there is no way to imprison him, to force him to make amends. Justice boils down to death or nothing. And death isn't that big a deal in this game. OSI blundered terribly. They refused to act as a judicial system, yet they refused to give the players the proper tools needed to enforce their own judicial system (and to be sure, there were many passionate players who would've leapt at the chance to build the structure of a law-abiding community, given the chance). We can only hope that those who are building the next generation of mega-multiplayer, persistent-world games learn from OSI's mistakes. But, sadder still, is the fact that ultimately, the blame is ours. If we, as a community of gamers, brought into these worlds the same sense of decency that we have outside the game, all would have been well. But something about the anonymity of online gaming seems to bring out the worst in many of us. At least, I fervently hope this is so. The idea that the liars, cheats and mean-spirited beings of Ultima Online are reflecting the true natures of those playing them... well, lock your doors at night, folks, because your neighbors are truly scum. by Peter Smith --<cut>-- -- 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--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00158.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: Review of FAQ's Bio Section</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00160.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Laws of Online World Design</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00238.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Laws of Online World Design</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00157.html">[MUD-Dev] Ethics & Identity</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00159"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00159"><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: Laws of Online World Design</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00225" HREF="msg00225.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Laws of Online World Design</A></strong>, manta <a href="mailto:manta#pobox,com">manta#pobox,com</a>, Fri 16 Oct 1998, 06:18 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00233" HREF="msg00233.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Laws of Online World Design</A></strong>, ApplePiMan <a href="mailto:ApplePiMan#aol,com">ApplePiMan#aol,com</a>, Sat 17 Oct 1998, 01:00 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00236" HREF="msg00236.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Laws of Online World Design</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Sat 17 Oct 1998, 03:47 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00238" HREF="msg00238.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Laws of Online World Design</A></strong>, ApplePiMan <a href="mailto:ApplePiMan#aol,com">ApplePiMan#aol,com</a>, Sat 17 Oct 1998, 05:54 GMT </LI> </ul> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00159" HREF="msg00159.html">[MUD-Dev] (CDMag) Sosaria Cracked: Why OSI's great social experiment is doomed</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Tue 13 Oct 1998, 00:39 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00157" HREF="msg00157.html">[MUD-Dev] Ethics & Identity</A></strong>, Scatter <a href="mailto:scatter#thevortex,com">scatter#thevortex,com</a>, Mon 12 Oct 1998, 17:38 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00155" HREF="msg00155.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: Review of FAQ's Bio Section</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Mon 12 Oct 1998, 16:13 GMT <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="00156" HREF="msg00156.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: Review of FAQ's Bio Section</A></strong>, Benjamin D. Wiechel <a href="mailto:strycher#toast,net">strycher#toast,net</a>, Mon 12 Oct 1998, 17:28 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00158" HREF="msg00158.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: Review of FAQ's Bio Section</A></strong>, Ling <a href="mailto:K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk">K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk</a>, Mon 12 Oct 1998, 19:05 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>