Excellent points about immersion. There are several aspects of an online game system that you must respect in order just to play.
1. LAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGgg... as such, I do have WIMPY still on the system. 2. RL calls, saving at any place etc.. has to be there, for RL does call. 3. RECALL is still implemented as its perfect for newbies (that newbies perspective) and useful for RL calls etc. However, I disable it in circumstances (PvP fighting, etc). These circumstances require that recall be disabled, and it is. AS such, newbies can recall get a sense, explore without screaming too much about "I am lost" (lost = I give up and go elsewhere a lot of times) and maintain the fighting force. OKay. Here are somethings we have done as tradeoffs in order to meet the goal of a Game (come anywhere, leave, and still be able to come back to it.). 1. Morgue. A player has the option of having a morgue (*get dropped during a battle .. sucks). This will suck all your gold and DIAMONDS (think: platinum +) from the player. 2. Ghost mode. Multikilling as new PKers go from non-pk to pk, people tend to be jerks and kill them instantly and when they get thier corpses.. just sit and kill them. GHOST mode (30 minutes of time) is where the person dying (in PvP fighting) gets to walk everywhere (cept no_ghost rooms) and talk in a hushed sounding voice. They can get thier corpse.. and that is about it. This totally eliminated multikilling from the mud.. and I tell you that is awesome. The last aspect that I think.. plays into everything is RULES. The best rule is the one that is coded. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandi Fallon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 9:57 AM Subject: Re[2]: DISCUSSION TOPIC: RP vs HACK > In "DISCUSSION TOPIC: RP vs HACK" Blue quoted Chris: > C>> 3. Why cant a balance exist? Frankly, pure RP is as boring to me as pure > C>> H/S. A combination, where the PK is based on RP. > > > B> is exactly what i'm saying. to some people, 'pure' rp, by which i assume > B> you mean talker-style rp, is boring. to other people, it is not. > > Needless to say, this is not a new topic, and every time it comes > around I see the same confusion over the term "roleplaying". That's > because some use it in the sense of AD&D and it's spin-offs, like > the White Wolf games, and others are thinking of computer games like > Duke Nukem. > > One useful term/concept that has been used in these discussions is > Bartlett's "immersion". That is, anything that reminds you it's a > just a game and you're not really someone else breaks the spell. > "How about them Pats?" is an OOC no no in either style. > > ROM's are more immersive than talkers (MUSHes) because on a talker > you a conscious puppeteer. You are strictly IC in the room, but on > the channels and in tells you are busy chatting with the other players > planning plot twists and getting 'consent'. Consent is very hard to > explain out of context. The usual phrase is, "Nothing can happen to > your character unless you agree to it.". Obviously, you're not on a > ROM anymore, Dorothy. The reason for this is, as Chris pointed out, > many people put hundreds of hours into developing the characters > they've created, and they don't want some newbie to pull a shotgun > from under their trenchcoat and blow it all away. > > MUSHes trade off immersion for realism. When IMPs starting about > realism, I become very polite. :) > > I was gonna stay out of this, but here I am, so to address the > original post: > > I made a 'filename' field, freeing names from Unix restrictions, > so players use spaces in names, and could change their names if > they got married, joined a clan, or got a better position. My theme > is Celtic (right Chris - no Mega City, and the little blue Smurfs > became little blue Picts) so clan names will be... clan names. :) > Keriwena will join a clan and become Keriwena Campbell, not > << CAMPBELL >> Keriwena. > > When you die you go to Heaven, you don't just pop up in the > middle of the Temple. I haven't finished this part, but you > will be judged, and if deemed worthy, returned to your body. > (I really like that 'become a ghost' system, btw.) > > I took out RECALL. (I think that's the biggest factor in my > abysmal player count.) > > Weather makes a difference. It snows in the winter, and you > get really tired trudging through the drifts. > > I reworked the food stuff. Fighting makes you hungrier than > sleeping does. You can eat fat, calories, and protein, and > a balanced diet is healthiest. This effect is minor, but > gives those perfectionist types something to tweak. If you > eat a lot, it doesn't matter but the problem with that is... > > Players aren't minivans. You can only 'hold' (inventory) about > four objects, depending on Dex. A good bag is suddenly very > important. Planning and packing for an adventure becomes > necessary. This took a lot of tweaking to get right. I played > one place that carried it to the extreme. You could only hold > one item, and you had to take your boots off to change your > pants. Can we say, "incredibly freakin' tedious"? > > In my godlike opinion, the greatest mistake made by most IMPs > in trying to add realism and roleplay is they forget the newbie's > perspective. Greet systems and no channels make it very hard > to get started. Nobody logs in and assumes it's worth learning > your systems to play. They won't give it a chance. There's got > to be immediate payoff, either in terms of making friends or > scoring points. That's my 'godlike' opinion, because that's > what *I* screwed up as an IMP. > > I'm tired... been doing this too long... anyone want a great > game that need just a few MORE changes? <sigh> > > > Sandi > > "I have not yet begun to code!" > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] blades.inetsolve.com 3333 > > > -- > ROM mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.rom.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rom > >
