View Single Post
Old 09-03-2007, 12:47 PM   #21
Molly
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Sweden
Home MUD: 4 Dimensions
Posts: 574
Molly will become famous soon enoughMolly will become famous soon enough
Re: What Does "Fair" Mean?

Heh, I was almost resolved to stop posting here, but this topic lured me out.
So here are some of my thoughts on the subject ‘Fair Play’.

To me a Mud is a skill game.
In this context I am only talking about Muds with a competitive element, meaning that the viewpoint for some RP enforced Muds might be a bit different from mine. But in a competitive Mud, especially if it involves PvP, whatever results a player reaches in the game IMO should be based on their personal skills and game experience. To me this means that they should at least start on the same footing, and that money in any form shouldn’t influence what progress they make.

Sure, you can argue that some players have more time to put into the game than others, and that this isn’t ‘fair’. This seems to be the most common argument to why time should be replaceable with money.

But time isn’t the only element involved in the game. What really should matter mostly is player skill. And player skill involves elements like knowing the world in detail, knowing what certain objects are good for and where you can get them, knowing the weaknesses of any ‘boss mob’ in the game and how to defeat them, knowing what tactics, weapons and equipment are most effective against different mobs and players. And at least in my own game the best equipment can only be acquired by having the patience and intelligence to solve a number of Quests, which are quite a bit more complex than the usual ‘fetch-and-carry’ or ‘kill-that-mob’ Quest.

Most of these things involve knowledge that you can only achieve by playing the game, i.e. spending time on it. But two players spending the exact same amount of time will not end up equally powerful. The more intelligent and knowledgeable – ‘skilled’ – player will always be the better one. Things like reflexes also play a role. Younger players usually have quicker reflexes, but that is often balanced by older players having more game experience.

But when you add an element where one player can buy advantages to even out or surpass those natural differences, then you also add an unfair element.

Some people like to defend unfair elements in a game by naming other things that also are unfair. To me that is absolute BS. Just as two wrongs doesn’t make one right, adding another unfair element to something that is already unfair doesn’t make it fair. It just makes it more unfair.

Some people also like make sweeping allegations, meant to insinuate that various wrongdoings are very common elements in a community. And since sweeping allegations always manage to make my hackles rise, let’s have a closer look at some of those simple ‘truths’ and what conclusions you cannot automatically make from them:

1. Life isn’t fair. This doesn’t mean that everything in life is unfair.
2. All horses are animals. This doesn’t mean that all animals are horses.
3. The fact that something is legal doesn’t automatically mean that it is fair or ethical.
4. The fact that something is common practice doesn’t automatically mean that it is fair or ethical.

Now let’s apply a similar way of reasoning to some examples of things that are usually considered ‘unfair’ in the Mudding Community :

1. ‘Some imms cheat and/or play favourites’. This doesn’t mean that all imms do this.
2. ‘Some players cheat’. This doesn’t mean that all players cheat.
3. ‘Some Admin are crooked/corrupt'. This doesn’t mean that all Admin are crooked/corrupt.
4. ‘Some games are unfair'. This’ doesn’t mean that all games are unfair.
5. ‘Some Mudowners would lie or be consciously misleading about the content and/or financial model of their Mud’. This doesn’t mean that all Mudowners would do it.

Not even somewhat more restricted statements, like ‘All players/Admins would cheat, if given a chance to do so without risk of being discovered and punished’ hold true.

For this discussion to be valid, we need to at least recognize that concepts like ‘fair’ and ‘ethical’ not only exist, but actually matter to some people, whatever your own personal standards and viewpoints might be.

While the statements listed above will be recognized as true by most people, I am aware that the definition of ‘fair’ will vary with the person. So in the following concrete examples, I will only state my own opinion of what is fair.

1. Is it fair that player A was born a lot more intelligent than Player B, and consequently has a bigger chance of being good at a skill game?
No, it isn’t fair, but we have to chalk it down to the general unfairness of Life, since it has got nothing to do with the fairness of a Game.

2. Is it fair that Player C was born in a richer family than Player D, and consequently has advantages in many different ways?
No, it isn’t fair, but again it’s due to the general unfairness of Life as stated in point 1.

3. Is it fair that Player E, who is a college student, has a lot more spare time to play Muds than Player F, who works full time?
Again see Point 1. (And at least this will probably change over time).

4. Is it fair that Player X, who has spent several years playing a Mud is a lot more skilled and powerful than Player Y, who just started mudding 3 weeks ago?
Yes, I think it is. It’s not only fair but natural.

5. Is it fair that Player Y can buy ‘the Sword of Uber Slaying’ for 500 dollars and kick Player X’s behind in a PvP fight, even though Player X is a much better player?
No, I don’t think it is, and I’d never play a Mud myself, where this was possible.
Molly is offline   Reply With Quote