[MUD-Dev] Korea and online world responsibility

[Sean Kelly]

Clay wrote:
> Raph Koster wrote:
 
>> To be frank, it somewhat depresses me that given the supposedly
>> egalitarian environment that virtual spaces can provide, that the
>> mechanics that we provide serve to reinforce some of the crudest
>> expressions of humanity.  Design a feudal world, get oppressive
>> behavior? Design a caste-based world, get prostitution. Not
>> surprising, I guess. But to me it does hearken back to the fact
>> that *players do what we reward them to do.* To abdicate
>> responsibility for that seems foolish--no, actually, it seems
>> amoral.

> I'm struggling with what seems to be the root claim here.  Are you
> really contending that a virtual world with a different
> sociopolitical structure could avoid provoking similar real-world
> behaviors in its players?  Are you also asserting that there are
> political forms which reduce these baser human behaviors (like
> prostitution)?

I think what Raph is getting at is that the current crop of MMORPGs
are effective case-based systems.  That is, your status in-game is
largely determined by what you have (ie. uber-items).  The problems
with e-bay have proven that some segment of the player population
finds that they can attain elite status cheaper if they do it out of
band.  Since money and credit cards are easier to come by as an
adult, that leaves kids wondering how they can e-bay their way to
godhood also.  Girls, however, have an option that boys, for the
most part, don't.  The only reason I think it's taken this long to
come into practice for game item exchange is that the physical
distance between players is significantly smaller in Korea than in
the US.

Are there political forms which reduce these behaviors?  Sure.
Create a game where status can not be gained outside the context of
the game, be it by item transferral or by earning favors.

> People act this way when they care about something, when they
> *want* something.  They do stupid, crude, thoughtless and
> self-destructive things for it.  And although I take some offense
> to certain remarks of Mike Parker's (I was raised in Korea), I
> think he's on the right track.  There is an underlying social
> issue at work here which is prior to all these concerns.

I agree.  Though as far as the prostitution angle is concerned --
girls in general learn very early in life that there is little they
cannot get provided they ask the right way.  And this is as much a
horomonal issue as a cultural one.

> And I don't mean to say that there is nothing to reconsider about
> the game design, and maybe that's all that you mean, too.  I think
> Paul Schwanz is on to something in trying to balance enjoyment
> with a less hours-on-end-compulsive play structure.

Sounds great ti me.  If such a MMORPG were created, I might even
play it.  I don't have time for the current play structure required
by MMORPGs.


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