<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Levelless MUDs --> <!--X-From-R13: Oqnz Ivttvaf <nqnzNnatry.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 17:32:25 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: Pine.SGI.3.96.980701125108.9670B-100000#zazu,angel.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: Pine.SOL.3.96.980701203204.17432C-100000@sun-cc203 --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: Levelless MUDs</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:adam#angel,com"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg00026.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00028.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00008.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00003.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00027">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00027">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00027">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Levelless MUDs</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: Levelless MUDs</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: Adam Wiggins <<A HREF="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 17:31:00 -0700 (PDT)</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> On Wed, 1 Jul 1998, Ling wrote: > On Tue, 30 Jun 1998, Travis S. Casey wrote: > > Among computer RPG and RPG-like games, there are some in which the > > only form of "advancement" is through gaining equipment. There are > > also some games, such as some MUSHes, where characters do not have any > > statistics, and therefore there is no advancement. > > If gaining equipment is "advancement" (I personally do class it as such) > then so is gathering money to get better equipment. So therefore > Traveller has advancement (in my loose meaning of the word). Er. And so > is gaining contacts and favours. :) (sorry for the blatant plug) This seems to suggest that there are many categories of advacement, any one of which any given game could include. A rough breakdown of what seems to have been presented so far in this thread: - Player/social advancement. Any and all interactive activities which a human being can attempt will contain at least one of these. The former occurs as the person involved ("user" or "player") learns the different options and nuances of the interactions, presumably choosing the methods which best allow them to meet their own ends and goals within the activity. The second occurs when there is more than a single person involved in the activity. Neither of these require any specific traits be present in the activity, but certain properties of the activity can greatly enhance the occurances of these traits. For example, easy methods of communication with other players greatly enhances the social trait. Also, although both of these are usually expressly outside the game's mechanics, there are usually some rudimentary mechanics for judging a given player's "advancement". Score is a perfect example - the number of matches of tennis a given tennis player has won in their career is "player advancement", yet has no effect on the mechanics of the game. A mud example of this is Tron - all players are the same, but you do gain "levels" based on your score, which does nothing except provide a ranking system so that you can easily tell who the most effective and active players are. - Non-volitile token advancement. This requires that the game have some sort of token ("character") which the player controls which can change and develop in the course of the game, and "save" its attributes gained during a given session for an indeterminant amount of time (presumably infinitely). The most common example of this would be D&D style levels and experience points. This kind of advancement is usually the slowest since it's the most peremenant. I call it "non-volitile" rather than "permenant" because usually there are ways to regress, they are just rare. For example, there is a "drain level" effect in D&D. This is one of those feared and loathed effects simply because it does affect a normaly non-volitile attribute. In addition, this sort of advancement must be local to the token which the player controls. In the case of player advancement (see above), the user can never become a "newbie" again. A master tennis player can pretend to suck, but in truth they do not. There's nothing that they can really do about this - even not practicing for years will probably leave them still very good at tennis, just rusty. In the case of token advancement, changing to a new token does indeed leave behind the advancement acheived by any other tokens. I'm not sure whether it should be considered required, or just common, that this sort of advancement be non-exchangeable. In every example I can think of, this is the case. Experience points cannot be exchanged between characters, for example. But I'm not decided whether this is a requirement to be in this category or not. - Volitile token advancement. This is very similar to non-volitile token advancement, except that the advancement is achieved quickly and lost as quickly, if not more so. Also, volitile tokens are almost always transferable, if not easily so; they are not considered bound to any particular player. The most common example here are trapping objects for your token: clothing, tools, weapons, money, or other independant objects which a character can possess and use to certain ends. In most cases these things are very easy-come-easy-go: Bubba the Newbie may find the might Sword of Power laying on main street, thus "advancing" with almost no effort whatsoever ("get sword"). But he may later be killed and loose the sword, plus whatever else he happened to own, in an instant, even if death is not permenant. Did I miss anything? Adam </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <UL><LI><STRONG>References</STRONG>: <UL> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="00008" HREF="msg00008.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levelless MUDs</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Ling <K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00026.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Multi-Server games</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00028.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Multi-Server games</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00008.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levelless MUDs</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00003.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: what's fun?</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00027"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00027"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Re: Databases: was Re: skill system</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00076" HREF="msg00076.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Databases: was Re: skill system</A></strong>, Jon A. Lambert <a href="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</a>, Wed 08 Jul 1998, 06:29 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00326" HREF="msg00326.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Databases: was Re: skill system</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Fri 24 Jul 1998, 00:25 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00093" HREF="msg00093.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Databases: was Re: skill system</A></strong>, s001gmu <a href="mailto:s001gmu#nova,wright.edu">s001gmu#nova,wright.edu</a>, Wed 08 Jul 1998, 20:06 GMT </LI> </ul> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00008" HREF="msg00008.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levelless MUDs</A></strong>, Ling <a href="mailto:K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk">K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk</a>, Wed 01 Jul 1998, 19:39 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00027" HREF="msg00027.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levelless MUDs</A></strong>, Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Thu 02 Jul 1998, 00:32 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00003" HREF="msg00003.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: what's fun?</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Wed 01 Jul 1998, 17:12 GMT <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="00046" HREF="msg00046.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: what's fun?</A></strong>, Richard Bartle <a href="mailto:76703.3042#compuserve,com">76703.3042#compuserve,com</a>, Fri 03 Jul 1998, 07:58 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00000" HREF="msg00000.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></strong>, Maddy <a href="mailto:maddy#fysh,org">maddy#fysh,org</a>, Wed 01 Jul 1998, 16:01 GMT <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="00001" HREF="msg00001.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Wed 01 Jul 1998, 16:57 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>