[MUD-Dev] Interesting EQ rant (very long quote)

[the_logos at www.achaea.com]

On Thu, 8 Mar 2001, Travis Casey wrote:

> Wednesday, March 07, 2001, 6:44:18 AM, the_logos at www.achaea.com
> <the_logos at www.achaea.com> wrote:
 
>> They wrote hint books online because that's what people do in
>> life. It has nothing to do with computer games. Considering how
>> into the general open-source movement many people on this list are,
>> it's amazing to me how many people on this list want to fight in
>> vain against the spread of information and think 1) it's a good
>> idea and 2) it's possible.
 
> I don't see it as a fight against the spread of information, but
> rather as a fight against the *use* of that information in certain
> ways.  In a roleplaying-focused game, it's disconcerting to have a
> character suddenly show up who acts as if he/she knows everything
> that a different character did, but is not that character.

As I've been pointing out though, unless you eliminate communication
between characters, there is no way for the game to know what a
character knows. It's not possible without AI far more sophisticated
than what we have now.

 
> Personally, I don't care what players *know* (well, actually, the
> reverse is true.  IMHO, the more the players know about the game,
> the better).  I just want them to roleplay well enough to *pretend*
> that they don't know things if their character doesn't know them.

Sure, I understand your motivation and I fully sympathise with it. I
don't go as far as John Buehler does, insfar as I do want a world of
interactive characters, but I'm just suggesting it is a futile effort
in a MUD of any size.

 
> It's not the spread of information that I think is bad -- it's the
> way in which that information gets used.

I guess I don't see much of a problem. If I was that worried about
roleplaying, I wouldn't have repeatable quests, as they are ridiculous
from a roleplaying perspective.

--matt

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