<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: RE: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game" --> <!--X-From-R13: zfrj <zfrjNgevybtl.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 11:03:33 -0800 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 4.2.2.19991105195423.05fd9f00#travis,trilogy.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: 11A17AA2B9EAD111BCEA00A0C9B4179303D6DE44#molach,origin.ea.com --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, RE: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game"</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:msew#trilogy,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="msg00137.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00142.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00134.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00141.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00136">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00136">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00136">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>RE: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game"</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>,"'<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A>'" <<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A>></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: RE: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game"</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: msew <<A HREF="mailto:msew#trilogy,com">msew#trilogy,com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 21:15:55 -0600</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu">mud-dev-admin#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> At 05:57 PM 11/05/1999 -0600, Koster, Raph wrote: > > -----Original Message----- > > From: msew [<A HREF="mailto:msew#trilogy,com">mailto:msew#trilogy,com</A>] > > Sent: Friday, November 05, 1999 5:38 PM > > To: mud-dev#kanga,nu > > Subject: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game" > > > > > > So I was at the GDC road trip here in austin and attended the talk: > > "Managing Online Game Communities" by Gordon Walton from Origin. > >You must have missed the earlier talk on the Laws of Online Gaming, which >originated from this list. :) I was there (though not speaking)... MUD-Dev's >URL was up on the board, too. I was at Gordon's too. I was actually at that talk too. I believe rule 1 and 2 specifically apply to the case of disruptive players. Those being: 1) It is not just a game. 2) Hate is good. It seems that as time progresses forward more and more of these "angst ridden" teenagers (from mihaly's email) and more of the "disruptive" force of people are going to be joining the online gaming community. According to the talk many of the "disruptive players" had logged 5000 hours or a pretty staggering amount of hours in 2 years time. These people are a part of the community and are always going to be there no matter what TOS and various rules are created. In addition it seems that the man hours dedicated to "wiping" them out is going to grow. When people play online games they go to that place when they feel happy, they goto that place when they feel bad, angry, pissed at the world, when they have just gotten in a fight with their SO, etc etc. It becomes part of their life in a big big way. (rule 1) So when they are on there being assholes it seems to me they are just there and their current mood is being amplified by the "I am anonymous now I can do anything factor". (ie if they are being a jerk they are REALLY being a jerk) now enter rule 2. Hate is goooodd. Since we know people are going to have bad days, we understand that we can not weed this out. We can then design mechanisms into the game to utilize this/deal with this in game. One idea that pops into my mind is: allow players to play monsters or NPCs. When I am in a pissed off mood or angry and just want to kill and be mean to the world give me an option to do it in the game. I may log in as my normal character and shout and tell my guild/clan/friends all my life's troubles, but having the ability to turn into the big ass mean troll seems like a great elegant solution to allow disruptive players to "disrupt" in game. ie it seems that the main issue with disruptive players is that they cost the game "non disruptive players" (billy was being mean to me so I left). Instead of billy, you now have the big green troll was mean to me. This not only allows people to have in game method for being "mean" to other players. It also adds some challenge to mobs that normally have really poor AI to begin with. another is exile. All online games have some form of this already: mihaly's shrubs, muds' hell, no-shout, freeze etc etc. These are all punitive GOD/Admin VS player. All those things do is piss people off at the admin team. They may "cool" the person off for that incident but in the long run these are just band aids on the infected wound. (ie they are not addressing the problem) It seems one could create a place called exile that is more of a corrective facility per say. *grin* The world is more raw, more vicious, more deadly. It is a place where only the heroic dare to travel and a place where the worst criminals of the land are sent. Based on your crime you are sent down there and have to "play" N hours in this hellish world before you are allowed to return to society. Work this exile into the game and game's history. It is almost like the Judge Dredd way of life: I am the law! Passes judgement right there and then send them off to exile. I am all for capital punishment (ie banning of a player) but it seems that there does not exist an easy way to keep the disruptive players out of the games. And it also seems that there must exist a more elegant way for dealing with these people. (ie recall back when you first started using email and newsgroups and such and when you were the jerk that was flaming everyone because your opinion differed. You evolved and became a good addition to society. It seems that we should be designing ways for these people to evolve or at least sand box them while they evolve so that they can be additions to our games). >Each one of those can cost you ten players or more who quit over what was >done to them. hehe numbers I have heard have ranged from 5-30 for this would be awesome to have actual data on this :-) Hard as it may be to get why someone did not renew their account/quit. would be really nice to get info on what skill level these disruptive players were. ie were they newbies just out to be jerks? were they mid level that really were semi poor players and turned to jerkness? were they uber high levels that had grown bored with the game and turned to more "rich" human targets? were they just jerks plain and simple? msew _______________________________________________ MUD-Dev maillist - MUD-Dev#kanga,nu <A HREF="http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev">http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev</A> </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="00134" HREF="msg00134.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game"</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Koster, Raph" <rkoster#origin,ea.com></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00137.html">[MUD-Dev] History of Online Gaming, part III</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00142.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game"</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00134.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game"</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00141.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game"</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00136"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00136"><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><A NAME="00144" HREF="msg00144.html">[MUD-Dev] IMP (Interactive Mud Protocol?)</A></strong>, Philip Loguinov -- Draymoor <a href="mailto:fibhufky#erols,com">fibhufky#erols,com</a>, Mon 08 Nov 1999, 20:47 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00137" HREF="msg00137.html">[MUD-Dev] History of Online Gaming, part III</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Mon 08 Nov 1999, 19:03 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00134" HREF="msg00134.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game"</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Sat 06 Nov 1999, 00:44 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00136" HREF="msg00136.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game"</A></strong>, msew <a href="mailto:msew#trilogy,com">msew#trilogy,com</a>, Mon 08 Nov 1999, 19:03 GMT </LI> </UL> <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="00141" HREF="msg00141.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game"</A></strong>, Charles Hughes <a href="mailto:charles.hughes#bigfoot,com">charles.hughes#bigfoot,com</a>, Mon 08 Nov 1999, 19:03 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00138" HREF="msg00138.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] players who "take away from the game"</A></strong>, Sellers, Michael <a href="mailto:MSellers#maxis,com">MSellers#maxis,com</a>, Mon 08 Nov 1999, 19:03 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00132" HREF="msg00132.html">[MUD-Dev] ADMIN: Library goof</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#cp,net">claw#cp,net</a>, Fri 05 Nov 1999, 23:40 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00145" HREF="msg00145.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: [Lib] ADMIN: Library goof</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#cp,net">claw#cp,net</a>, Mon 08 Nov 1999, 21:52 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>