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

[Matt Mihaly]

On Sat, 17 Mar 2001, Jon Lambert wrote:

> There are many more positions on this than yours or Matt Mihaly's.
> I think Matt's position is fairly clear; In summary, there is no
> distinction between character and player.

Well, that's not quite what I believe. Clearly the player and the
character are different things. The player is a human being, the
character is a set of data that serves as a proxy for the player. My
point is everything aside from the tangible attributes comes from the
player and IS the player. Anything you as a player cause your
character to do, you as a player have done. You've caused this data to
be manipulated in this way or that way, etc. Everything else is a
fiction that we mutually agree on in order to enjoy the
world. Roleplayers stick to the fiction more than GoPers, but
regardless of how much they stick to it, it's still you doing it,
albeit through a proxy that consists of nothing more than a bunch of
data.

> And I know from past posts that he is/was even dubious about heavy
> roleplayers drawing that distinction.  I tend to agree with that
> position in regards to _games_.  And he does seem to have come
> around to the notion that heavy roleplayers really do intentionally
> make or create such distinctions between player and character.
> Whether he thinks it's real/artificial or useful isn't really an
> issue here.
 
I never argue that people pretend there is a distinction. I just argue
that it's a fiction and pretending otherwise causes one to make design
decisions based on something untrue, which is a bad idea.

> What is interesting is that he has reversed that idea that a game
> which implements separation of character and player identity would
> attract heavy roleplayers.  I would suggest that it does not.
> Strong separation of character and player are the observable effects
> or consequences of a roleplaying game.  It's something that doesn't
> require code nor can it be coded, nor can it be enforced by code!
> Roleplaying is 99% communication.

Yep, you've captured what I think is the case quite well.


--matt

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev