[MUD-Dev] PVP and perma-death

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad]

J C Lawrence <claw at kanga.nu> writes:
> iso  <olag at ifi.uio.no> wrote:

>> So I have to disagree with the assumption that "griefers" per se
>> act outside the game play, they just act outside my preferred
>> playing style or are a bit single-minded about what is valid game
>> play.

> Precisely.  They exceed your tolerance boundaries.

In that particular moment, yes. This doesn't have to be stable
either. I might have been in a PvP area to solve a timed quest,
getting attacked then is extremely annoying. Another day I might
want to test out my twinked out character in PvP.

Getting annoyed isn't necessarily bad. It gives my guild an enemy to
destroy. However, my guild is not made for destroying enemies so it
should not happen so often that it exceeds the tolerance boundaries
of the guild! This is a core problem with PvP. Revenge can be a
spectacular event that is good for bonding and group identity, but
the game should not turn revenge into your daily struggle.

Having perma-death, guild character-death-lists, and perhaps allow
scalping (trophees for the guild hall) might bring more intensity
and variety to MUD game play.

Getting rid of criminals should be a group effort. The MUDs I know
of do very little to support the following scenario.

  guildchat> Bubba: fook.. i got killed from behind!
  guildchat> Fuffa: chite... who?
  guildchat> Bubba: dunno my comp crashed... CHITE!!! He got my armour!
  guildchat> Fuffa: what and ass!! u can have my armour
  guildchat> Dudda: it was l33tdude, i see it in the guild event log.
                    He killed you, so I get to put his name in red
  guildinfo> l33tdude is now Kill On Sight!
  guildchat> Gugga: hey i am looking at this guy called l33tdude, his
                    name is red, is he on the death list? kill him... now?
  guildchat> Fuffa: follow him and keep posting locations to guilchat
  guildchat> Dudda: yeah, do that, we'll come and collect his scalp...
  guildchat> Huhha: ill nuke him, gugga, you need to watch yer killcount
                    or youll get permadeath... hehe

>> 4. PvP has a place in hard core roleplaying. RvR completely
>> misses that target.

> While I've not asked the larger commercials, it seems clear that
> for large scale games that they've abandoned anything but a weak
> attempt at a thin skin of functional roleplaying as a goal.

It is not a viable main business for large scale systems. The point
is that PvP can add to the experience for a variety of play styles,
if you can reduce the amount of ganking without removing it
completely.

--
Ola - http://folk.uio.no/olag/
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