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Threshold · 04-29-2008, 12:28 AM

Well I never said characters are place holders. But they are in fact vehicles for actual players to express themselves creatively. They are a means to an end. Further, how long can you stare at the exact same work of art? Or how long can you work on the exact same piece of art?

It only took Michelangelo 4 years to paint the Sistine Chapel, and that was mainly due to the fact that he had to LEARN how to paint frescoes, weather, technical difficulties, and his patron frequently going off to war or hovering on death's door:

Are you telling me a character on an AFS mud is more a work of art than that?

I don't think a player who dies on an AFS mud loses anywhere near as much as someone would if they permanently died on a really good hack-n-slash mud. When everyone is facing permadeath, and people are dying and remaking all the time, it is just another part of the world. It becomes no big deal really, and in a lot of cases it is the easiest escape from a difficult situation. I know this from my own experience playing permadeath muds, and from talking to people who play them.

But I get into that more in the thread , so I won't go off on that subject in this thread any further.

For me, I get less emotionally attached to a character that can be destroyed at any random person's whim than one I can potentially keep forever. Knowing that the end of a character is at someone else's control, rather than my own, makes it hard for me to consider that a worthwhile investment. In fact, maybe right there is one of the major reasons the emotional effect differs for people. People like myself, knowing a character can die permanently, automatically put up a bit of a barrier between themself and their character (emotionally). So their own opinions about the permadeath feature are like a self fulfilling prophecy. Other people (perhaps like you), throw caution to the wind and let yourself get totally emotionally invested in the character. So when the character dies, it is heart wrenching, since you let yourself get fully invested emotionally.

04-29-2008, 12:28 AM	#107
Threshold Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Home MUD: Threshold RPG Posts: 1,260	Re: How many muds have permadeath? Well I never said characters are place holders. But they are in fact vehicles for actual players to express themselves creatively. They are a means to an end. Further, how long can you stare at the exact same work of art? Or how long can you work on the exact same piece of art? It only took Michelangelo 4 years to paint the Sistine Chapel, and that was mainly due to the fact that he had to LEARN how to paint frescoes, weather, technical difficulties, and his patron frequently going off to war or hovering on death's door: Are you telling me a character on an AFS mud is more a work of art than that? I don't think a player who dies on an AFS mud loses anywhere near as much as someone would if they permanently died on a really good hack-n-slash mud. When everyone is facing permadeath, and people are dying and remaking all the time, it is just another part of the world. It becomes no big deal really, and in a lot of cases it is the easiest escape from a difficult situation. I know this from my own experience playing permadeath muds, and from talking to people who play them. But I get into that more in the thread , so I won't go off on that subject in this thread any further. For me, I get less emotionally attached to a character that can be destroyed at any random person's whim than one I can potentially keep forever. Knowing that the end of a character is at someone else's control, rather than my own, makes it hard for me to consider that a worthwhile investment. In fact, maybe right there is one of the major reasons the emotional effect differs for people. People like myself, knowing a character can die permanently, automatically put up a bit of a barrier between themself and their character (emotionally). So their own opinions about the permadeath feature are like a self fulfilling prophecy. Other people (perhaps like you), throw caution to the wind and let yourself get totally emotionally invested in the character. So when the character dies, it is heart wrenching, since you let yourself get fully invested emotionally.