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12139: RE: Re[2]: [MUD-Dev] The grass is always greener in the other field
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From: "Joe Andrieu" <joe@andrieu.net>
Newsgroups: nu.kanga.list.mud-dev
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 16:03:53 -0800
References: [1]
Organization: Kanga.Nu
-----Original Message-----
J C Lawrence wrote
[snip]
Conversely, the problem with a game is that "notice" is a much more
manipulable fact than IRL. There are social structures and routines=20
built into RL that deal with "suspicious activities" that don't
exist or particularly pertain to MUDdom. =20
[snip]
----------------------------
JC--
You just stumbled on the solution: have an IC solution that mirrors how =
we handle it in real life. Consider two scenarios:
1. I have a hut in the woods. Over time, the nearby area becomes =
sparsely populated, enough for people to know there's a hut, but not =
really enough for their to be any organized sort of police. And there =
aren't any neighbors for miles. Now, I happen to log^H^H^H stop by the =
hut once every couple of days. If someone was persistent enough, they =
could wait for me to check in and leave, then start picking that padlock =
and have a full day or two before I or anyone else would see them. And =
they'd get all my loot. The fact is, this is limited in urban settings =
because we DO have police and forensics and neighbors and all sorts of =
things that provide significant negative consequences if you get caught, =
which is probable for certain types of crime. Why should a MUD be so =
easy to be a criminal?
2. Consider how the stand-alone adventure game Thief handles it. Sure, =
you can take a large amount of time to handle a particular job. But =
there is a good chance that you'll be discovered if you take too long or =
are noisy. And if you aren't paying attention... Whack! You can die =
really quickly.
IRL you don't have infinite time to solve risky problems. So put a guard =
near that lock, a guard who comes by on sentry duty once every few =
minutes or so. I'm sure if he found a macro-driven thief blindly picking =
the lock, he'd have no problem dispatching the poor fool. =20
End of problem.
-j
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