The Food Chain

[Malichor]

When My wife and I Worked in Terris, ( AOL's online MUD) we noticed something unusual in commercial games, apart from privately run MUDS

players can really suck

YOU surely must realize (Otherwise you wouldnt be in the position we all are, vieing for one of the 7) that when your guildmaster speaks to you, you should be, if not attentive, at least polite.. Now lets take this to the extreme.. You get people Slandering the GODS in public channels.

its going to happen, if your game has gods that are storyteller run.

not might.. it WILL

Now Terris policy was to only take action , if the verbal abuse broke TOS, regardless, of whether it made any kind of roleplaying sense at all, I guess the almighty dollar was speaking for them.

I cannot, for the life of me, think of anything that totally ruins the roleplay set up by the staff of the game, when joe generic, the 2nd level nobody starts talking trash ... to the WHOLE WORLD ( public channel) about one of the gods.

What will YOU do about this? suck it up? because they're paying to play? or enforce a roleplay environment,via some nasty repercussions ( I personally beleive in repercussions 110%)

[Buggy]

Talking trash about the gods of the game? Ha! That didn't even make the top ten of worries I have about player actions in games like these. Here's my top ten in no particular order:

1. Player Killers.
2. Hacks and Cheats.
3. Sexual harrasment of other players.
4. Heck, harrasment in general.
5. Using the game to promote illegal activities. (trading credit card numbers, &c).
6. Publishing the game secrets on their web page.
7. Logging on as many different characters then pooling those characters' equipment or money.
8. Becoming high up and important in the game, then leaving never to be seen again.
9. Suddenly disconnecting.
10. Acting in a way detrimental to the roleplaying environment. Hey, that's dissing the gods. Guess it did make my top ten after all.

Oh, and number 11. Being all l33t and talking in hAx0r. I hate that.

Mike

[Malichor]

1. Player Killers.
Either turn it off, or live with it, Personally, i prefer to have NO pk.
2. Hacks and Cheats.
Preventable, if you care to take the time to do it.
3. Sexual harrasment of other players.
I agree on this one, a pain
4. Heck, harrasment in general.
See #3
5. Using the game to promote illegal activities. (trading credit card numbers)
Never had that happen in any of my games, most folk prefer private services like icq for that
6. Publishing the game secrets on their web page.
Cant be helped.. someones always going to want the easy way

7. Logging on as many different characters then pooling those characters' equipment or money.
Only let them have one character, or make character slots unavailable for a day after deletion.. folks that would weasel in that way are usually too impatioent to do it once every 2 days for that little gain.
8. Becoming high up and important in the game, then leaving never to be seen again.
You bet if my dad died, id drop a game im playing in a second, get some sensativity.
9. Suddenly disconnecting.
Cannot be helped, due to bad ISP's and hardware
10. Acting in a way detrimental to the roleplaying environment. Hey, that's dissing the gods. Guess it did make my top ten after all.

Oh, and number 11. Being all l33t and talking in hAx0r. I hate that.

after considering your list, It looks like my peeve made it pretty high on that list

and #11 IS annoying I hear you on that one.

[JeffCrook]

Originally posted by Malichor:

Now Terris policy was to only take action , What will YOU do about this? suck it up? because they're paying to play? or enforce a roleplay environment,via some nasty repercussions ( I personally beleive in repercussions 110%)

I don't know about anybody else, but in my game you can do this so long as you have another powerful diety on your side. If you go around slamming ALL the gods, then you might find things harder and harder to accomplish, bad things happen to you more often, people don't find you as pleasant to be around, etc.

But if you are, say, a priest of Set, it would be in character for you to blaze away at the belief system of the cult of Mithra.

Besides, the real gods of the system are the creators and storytellers, so if it gets too offensive, maybe the followers of Bel will catch you in a dark alley and shake all the money and magic items from your pockets.

I personally don't like offline repurcussions. But sometimes a god has to do what a god has to do, if he/she/it is to remain a god.

[Buggy]

Hey, all I'm saying by my message is that these are things that concern me in the games and that I'll have to deal with in design (not strictly true: I expect Skotos to deal with the hackers for me).

My point isn't, "that bastard, how dare he put real life in front of my carefully crafted game," but "ok, I know that people will drop out of the game at a moments notice, especially people in positions of power. How can I design the game so that this won't adversely affect it?" Storytellers too. They're as here today, gone tomorrow as any player.

Same thing for disconnects or player killers. I'm not making a value judgement about them but saying that I have to take steps in the design to deal for them.

It isn't just allow or disallow, but what is the in-game rationalle for allowing players to not attack other players but still allow them to attack NPCs. Or contrarywise, what are the in-game affects of player upon player mayhem?

There's no way I can disallow any of the things on my list, or rather I can say, "hey, don't publish the secrets of the game, and don't exploit loopholes," to my heart's content, but people will still do it. I gotta take that into account when designing my game, and that's the headache.

D'oh! I just realized, I could submit a world set in a cyberpunk cyberspace where all those things are de rigeor. I have two days. I can fill out another propsal.... Ha!

[Erica]

I was thinking about this too, although (shame) I was thinking in a bit of EverQuest terms.. a faction system. You can say all you want about any oganization or religion, no one will stop you, but eventually some NPC's will take notice .. and soon you won't be welcome in places that respect or revere the gods your bashing.

It wouldn't be easy to regain the trust or like of those that suddenly hate you, but it would be a lesson learned.

[Malichor]

Yes, i think ill incorporate a set of "sliders" that will show a dieities attitude towards a person.. killing a follower of that deity will lower the slider... and sacrifcing ( appropriately ) at that gods altar, might raise it (but making up is a lot harder than pissing off). One slider per deity. That way religious NPC's will have thier disposition altered towards that person. either for or against... now violent types might attack, if the mod was severe enough.. but shopkeepers might grossly overcharge someone who has made a habit of insulting thier deity, or NPC's who offer quests, might not even offer quests to those folk.. or even go as far as to offer a hint, if theyre exceptionally favored