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There are many ways to discourage scripting in your MUD. We've introduced several anti-scripting measures on Clandestine MUD for PvP that have created a history of environment where players do not rely on scripts and rather reflex and action in combat. There have been times where we have toyed with advanced scripts for fun, in order to see how they would react in our larger group on group battles, and while possible, it is not truly a feasable ploy;
Beyond just the fact that Clandestine(and I'm sure we're not the only MUD) employs anti-combat scripting measures, we have a very intelligent PvP base. An intelligent PvPer on a MUD such as ours would be able to tell that an opponent is using a script, and then take measures to abuse others' scripts (and if the scripter were able to avoid abuse, still take advantage of knowing how they can force an opponent's script to flee/do other things).
Then, on a MUD such as Utopia, everything becomes so verbose and so many things are happening at once, that scripts become even easier to confuse.
In the end, when I give seminar or write articles on MMORPG and MUD(it is particularly true for MUD) PvP, the element I always stress will serve your player-killing efforts more in the end than anything else is creativity and psychology.
You cannot really compare PvP to chess - one has no element of random, the environments are totally different, one introduces many more than 2 versus players, and reaction-time means everything in PvP. On a good PvP MUD, the player should be getting the same kind of adrenaline kick that you got when you went to the arcade and played Street Fighter II, or when you go out with a group of friends to play paintball.
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