[MUD-Dev] [DGN] MUD developer's motives

[Dave Rickey]

From: "Brandon J. Van Every" <vanevery at 3DProgrammer.com>
> Dave Rickey:

>> Social engineering has never been an experimental science before.

> Then you are unaware of the history of sociocultural anthropology.
> At its inception, it was used to make colonial domination easier.

Not unaware of it, at all.  It lacked certain aspects to qualify as
an experimental science (sufficient controls, ability to re-run the
experiment, etc.).

>> Anyway, real-world social rules have grown centered around
>> certain rules known as the laws of physics.  Only so much food,
>> only so much living space, only so many potential breeding
>> partners, etc.  The virtual worlds do not have to obey those
>> rules, in fact they violate them routinely.  As a result, there
>> is at least the *potential* for creating societies that go beyond
>> anything possible in the real world.  It's the doctrine of human
>> perfectability, re-written for a digital age.

> We are all still limited by available time.  Also, we can't
> remember everything, nor absorb everything.  Resource limitations
> are definitely with us in the virtual space.

Individuals may forget things, the community as a whole does not (I
am reminded of things I said during our beta far too often to
believe it ever forgets anything).  Individuals are limited by time,
but somewhere out there, somebody has probably logged 1500 hours of
play time since Camelot launched.  A player chooses his own limits
on that front.

--Dave

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