Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post

Jazuela · 08-05-2006, 08:49 AM

I disagree. The coded inability to kill another character reduces immersion for everyone. I can come up with a hundred situations. Here's just one:

Some low-life slug spits on a wealthy merchant, ruining her silk panties. The merchant is justifiably offended, and refuses to sell the low-life slug anything anymore. She then tells all her buddies, and they refuse to do business with him too. Except this one guy, who secretly hires the low-life slug to cause mayhem and ruin the merchant chick's business so he can surpass her in sales. The low-life slug starts leaving dead rats on the merchant's doorstep. He gets arrested on a weekly basis, but because there's no risk of death, it just gives him a snicker and he goes out and finds another nasty trick to play on the merchant chick and her buddies.

After a month of this, the entire game's economy is sent completely out of whack. The guy who hired the low-life slug now has a monopoly on all the widgets in the game. New players trying to become widget sellers are sent to Medievia packing with their tails tucked between their legs and a bad feeling about the game they just tried. Old players get tired of the rich bastard being the only rich bastard in the game, but there's nothing they can do about it, because he's the only guy who sells widgets and they need those widgets, and anyone else who tries to sell them ends up with a rat infestation in their workshops.

Change scene to coded support of risk of death:

Low life slug gets arrested, and warned if he doesn't pick on someone else for a change, he's gonna git a whoopin. After a few whoopins, he learns his lesson, since his player doesn't want to lose the character, he smartens up, and moves on to becoming one of the most respected and feared professional assassins in the game. The rat-infested merchant chick pays him off not to kill her, but the widget-hoarding bastard pays the assassin even more. Rat infested merchant gets whacked. Her spouse, a second-rate widget salesman, inherits his mate's riches, and hires a personal bodyguard, who he provides training for, and that bodyguard becomes the most respected and feared assassin-killer in the game. He kills off not only the assassin, but the rat-infesting widge-hoarding bastard who hired the assassin, and after a week of people chasing each other around and hiring spies and hoarding widgets and redistributing them, you have a couple dozen players who had a TON of fun, and the game economy remains relatively unscathed, and you have also shown new players that sure, their character can get killed but look at all the nifty stuff they can do in the process!

08-05-2006, 08:49 AM	#24
Jazuela Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: New England Posts: 849	I disagree. The coded inability to kill another character reduces immersion for everyone. I can come up with a hundred situations. Here's just one: Some low-life slug spits on a wealthy merchant, ruining her silk panties. The merchant is justifiably offended, and refuses to sell the low-life slug anything anymore. She then tells all her buddies, and they refuse to do business with him too. Except this one guy, who secretly hires the low-life slug to cause mayhem and ruin the merchant chick's business so he can surpass her in sales. The low-life slug starts leaving dead rats on the merchant's doorstep. He gets arrested on a weekly basis, but because there's no risk of death, it just gives him a snicker and he goes out and finds another nasty trick to play on the merchant chick and her buddies. After a month of this, the entire game's economy is sent completely out of whack. The guy who hired the low-life slug now has a monopoly on all the widgets in the game. New players trying to become widget sellers are sent to Medievia packing with their tails tucked between their legs and a bad feeling about the game they just tried. Old players get tired of the rich bastard being the only rich bastard in the game, but there's nothing they can do about it, because he's the only guy who sells widgets and they need those widgets, and anyone else who tries to sell them ends up with a rat infestation in their workshops. Change scene to coded support of risk of death: Low life slug gets arrested, and warned if he doesn't pick on someone else for a change, he's gonna git a whoopin. After a few whoopins, he learns his lesson, since his player doesn't want to lose the character, he smartens up, and moves on to becoming one of the most respected and feared professional assassins in the game. The rat-infested merchant chick pays him off not to kill her, but the widget-hoarding bastard pays the assassin even more. Rat infested merchant gets whacked. Her spouse, a second-rate widget salesman, inherits his mate's riches, and hires a personal bodyguard, who he provides training for, and that bodyguard becomes the most respected and feared assassin-killer in the game. He kills off not only the assassin, but the rat-infesting widge-hoarding bastard who hired the assassin, and after a week of people chasing each other around and hiring spies and hoarding widgets and redistributing them, you have a couple dozen players who had a TON of fun, and the game economy remains relatively unscathed, and you have also shown new players that sure, their character can get killed but look at all the nifty stuff they can do in the process!