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<H1>[MUD-Dev] Character persistance, was Family, was characters per account</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Character persistance, was Family, was characters per account</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: "JC" <<A HREF="mailto:jenbowie#davidbowie,com">jenbowie#davidbowie,com</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 17:08:40 -0400</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>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>--- Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services <<A
href="mailto:Paul.Schwanz#east,sun.com">Paul.Schwanz#east,sun.com</A>>
wrote:<BR>> <BR>> Daniel wrote:<BR>> >p.s. I actually like the idea
(or rather 'Mark Wells' idea,<BR>> >ahem) of character persistence. I'd
really like to build<BR>> >it into a future game. Heavens, though, not for
realism's<BR>> >sake (I vaguely recall this being his principal
motivation),<BR>> >but rather that it increases attachment to the world
and<BR>> >opens up some interesting gameplay avenues. And yes, you<BR>>
>would need some sophisticated AI/scripting to make it work, <BR>>
>making it a pretty scary implementation proposition.<BR><BR>> As to
interesting gameplay avenues opened, imagine trying to<BR>> play out
Tolkien's masterpiece without character persistence.<BR>> The bearer of the
ring would _have_ to be an NPC, since a PC<BR>> could wink out of existence
at the drop of a hat. What then<BR>> happens to the ring? Does it
just drop to the ground to be<BR>> picked up by whomever is nearby? And
what of the fellowship?<BR>> Now Aragorn is here...now he is not. Poor
Frodo will never<BR>> know whom he can trust to be there to defend him
against the<BR>> black riders...or black rider...or no riders...where'd
the<BR>> rider's go? Hehe.<BR><BR>Character persistance does not
require the same player's persistance. This kind<BR>of persistance is an issue
of priorities. Persistance of this sort seems to be<BR>more important on the
MUSHes that I frequent than the MUDs I've sampled in the<BR>past.<BR><BR>This is
somewhat due to what MUSHes have to engage the players, which is,
other<BR>players, since many MUSHes are tabletop/pen-and-pencil RPGs converted
to an<BR>online form and usually lack items like coded puzzles, mobiles, and
experience<BR>gains through combat.<BR><BR>The traditional concept for
characters required a registration and approval<BR>process. Players were
expected to put together a detailed and coherent<BR>character which would be
examined and placed within a group because of some<BR>hook in the character's
stats or background.<BR><BR>The popular shift in newer MUSHes (particularly WoD)
is Open Character<BR>Generation, where a player can make any number of starting
level characters,<BR>completely crafted by them to their own
specifications.<BR><BR> The first Open CharGen - Dark Metal - was a
reaction to an earlier, more<BR>traditional MUSH that had failed, an experiment
to see what would happen with<BR>the opposite rules. Or in the words of "Emily
Treason", one of the founders: <BR><BR>"In the beginning, there was Masquerade,
and the god of Masquerade decided for<BR>reasons I won't get into to close the
mush. And the ex-building wizard of MasqI<BR>did go unto Thor, the ex-site admin
and did say unto him, "Hey, we got a mush<BR>concept, you got a site?" And Thor
did say, "Yea, verily," and thus was<BR>Amarynth born. And it was to be what all
the players claimed they wanted --<BR>quality-centered, backgrounds-checked, all
characters approved, and so forth<BR>and so on. <BR><BR>And after a few months,
the staff did look around and say, "Those bloody little<BR>buggers lied -- they
don't want staff to dictate quality. They don't want<BR>control." <BR><BR>After
starting at USD in the Academic Computing department graduate lab in<BR>spring
of 1994, DM moved the next year (after the university administration<BR>opted to
take a momentarily dim view of mushes) to Fiend in North Carolina, and<BR>then
in late 1996 to Anubis in Boston.<BR>The mush remains in a state of flux and
tinkering, the better to provide a<BR>quality role-playing
cyberpunk-cross-gothic punk venue for the players. After a<BR>general overhaul,
chargen is once more fully open to the public -- unlike other<BR>'open chargen'
WoDs, there are no race quotas, and you don't need to submit an<BR>application
to get the character set up." -Emily Treason, 1997 (from<BR><A
href="http://www.ennui.net/darkmetal/intro.html">http://www.ennui.net/darkmetal/intro.html</A>)
<BR> <BR><BR>If the success of the experiment is measured by the size of
the player base,<BR>then Dark Metal is an enormous success. It attracts 130+
players a night and<BR>has spawned many imitators. The newest MUSHes are
extending the concept of Open<BR>Chargen even further in the desperate attempt
to attract new players by<BR>throwing every character race/type/class that they
can think of, regardless of<BR>whether they mesh well or not. Throwing in every
published race is distracting<BR>enough without including non-WW races such as
Highlander-style Immortals. I'm<BR>wondering if this race glut is common
elsewhere or merely part of a published<BR>system. What is considered to be an
ideal number of races?<BR><BR>In an Open Chargen system, more races seem to
heighten one of the main problems<BR>inherent in the concept. If you make the
character with only your ideas in<BR>mind, then the character starts out in the
game isolated from IC connections.<BR>Sure, the staffer can work to wedge the
character in somewhere, but you still<BR>end up with a surplus of
hacker/supermodel/ninjas or homeless/runway/orphaned<BR>children with hearts of
gold and a lack of people in support positions playing<BR>paramedics or
journalists or politicians. <BR><BR>Depending on the MU*, there are differing
amounts of support that players learn<BR>to expect from the staff. I've been on
MUSHes where players called for staff<BR>judges at the first sign of combat or
conflict, which causes more work for<BR>staffers and tends to slow down play and
possibly encourage a less bold<BR>mindset, it can really maintain a meta-story
well. On the other hand, Dark<BR>Metal's laissez faire attitude extends out of
the chargen and expects the<BR>players to handle their own conflicts and combats
as well as develop their own<BR>plots and guilds and areas for approval. The
staffers are primarily called in<BR>for rule clarifications, over the top ideas,
and heated name calling. Leaving<BR>much of the action up to the players can be
chaotic, have an inefficient amount<BR>of overlap in player actions, and lack
somewhat in a directed meta-story, but<BR>the freedom encourages player
interaction if they wish to achieve their goals<BR>and brings about the
unexpected in interesting ways.<BR><BR>It seems there is a third way to handle
character persistence. Keep the<BR>characters persistant, even if the players
aren't. Firan MUX uses a roster<BR>system of pre-made characters that already
have detailed connections and<BR>backgrounds to the players and the theme. The
most important and involved<BR>characters, Level 1 Features, often require an
application, while the Level 2<BR>Companions and Level 3 Citizens are
immediately accessible. A newbie has a<BR>fully fleshed out and connected
character within moments of logging on. No<BR>Chargen required. The idea is that
the players are more like actors in a grand<BR>play, instead of mere extensions
of themselves. Not too useful for a pay site,<BR>but the characters end up going
back on the roster after 10 days or so
idle.<BR><BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
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<STRONG><A HREF="msg00489.html">[MUD-Dev] interesting article on world size and finance</A></STRONG>
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<STRONG><A HREF="msg00496.html">[MUD-Dev] LA Times article: Virtual Loot for Real Cash</A></STRONG>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>Re: [MUD-Dev] shrink wrapped mud development kit (fwd)</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00513" HREF="msg00513.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] shrink wrapped mud development kit (fwd)</A></strong>,
Charles <a href="mailto:caugusti@gladstone.uoregon.edu">caugusti@gladstone.uoregon.edu</a>, Sat 22 Apr 2000, 04:13 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00509" HREF="msg00509.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] shrink wrapped mud development kit (fwd)</A></strong>,
Chris Jacobson <a href="mailto:fear@technologist.com">fear@technologist.com</a>, Sat 22 Apr 2000, 04:13 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00496" HREF="msg00496.html">[MUD-Dev] LA Times article: Virtual Loot for Real Cash</A></strong>,
Ryan Palacio <a href="mailto:rpalacio@verant.com">rpalacio@verant.com</a>, Thu 20 Apr 2000, 23:43 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00498" HREF="msg00498.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] LA Times article: Virtual Loot for Real Cash</A></strong>,
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw@cp.net">claw@cp.net</a>, Fri 21 Apr 2000, 00:02 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00495" HREF="msg00495.html">[MUD-Dev] Character persistance, was Family, was characters per account</A></strong>,
JC <a href="mailto:jenbowie@davidbowie.com">jenbowie@davidbowie.com</a>, Thu 20 Apr 2000, 23:43 GMT
<UL>
<li><Possible follow-up(s)><br>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00503" HREF="msg00503.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Character persistance, was Family, was characters per account</A></strong>,
Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services <a href="mailto:Paul.Schwanz@east.sun.com">Paul.Schwanz@east.sun.com</a>, Sat 22 Apr 2000, 04:13 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00489" HREF="msg00489.html">[MUD-Dev] interesting article on world size and finance</A></strong>,
Fred Clift <a href="mailto:fred@veriohosting.com">fred@veriohosting.com</a>, Thu 20 Apr 2000, 22:08 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00497" HREF="msg00497.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] interesting article on world size and finance</A></strong>,
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw@cp.net">claw@cp.net</a>, Thu 20 Apr 2000, 23:56 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00504" HREF="msg00504.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] interesting article on world size and finance</A></strong>,
John Bertoglio <a href="mailto:jb@pulsepoll.com">jb@pulsepoll.com</a>, Sat 22 Apr 2000, 04:13 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
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</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>
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