[MUD-Dev] measuring roleplay

[Val Trullinger]

Matt Mihaly wrote:

>      Does anyone here use any sort of player-run system that rates
>      other player's roleplay (or rates any other player intangible)?


At the Two Towers, we use a system that's partly player-run, partly
code-based, to roughly measure roleplay. It works like this:

  - Player guilds have a theme document, which they write up, and the
  admin review.

   - The admin find some quantifiable thematic action that can be
   logged, and log it.

  - Deviating from the guild's theme results in fines for every breach
  of the theme.

A little abstract, so here's some examples.

  - A guild of moral elves decides they're going to not kill any moral
  NPCs, and that they'll have a membership of 90% elves. We set up a
  log of guild members kills, run a check on the log for moral NPCs
  every month, and check the membership of the guild to see if they've
  got the right ratio of elves to non-elves.

  - A guild of mercenaries must auction off 100 items per week, and
  members must maintain an alignment of impartial.

  - A guild of moral dwarves bans killing all dwarf NPCs and all moral
  NPCs, but then does it anyway, and gets fined enough to deplete
  their guild vault.

Also, there's a trend for only characters who seriously roleplay to
get elected guildmasters. That's purely player-driven. Occasionally,
we've had mudwide votes for best roleplayer, among other player-given
titles.

The system is by no means perfect, but it's something. The catch is
that to get player buy-in, they have to be the ones coming up with the
standards they'll set for themselves. Finding major things to log and
review isn't that hard -- it's all the other little things, like what
languages characters speak, their private interactions, etc. We used
to have a mudwide comm system usable from anywhere, but that was
making it too much like a chat room. Everyone was out of character,
and people would often just be lewd and rude to get attention. So we
restricted comm usage to taverns only, and it's helped. Well, it's a
start, anyway.

val

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