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12-28-2004, 06:39 PM

It seems the implementors have a more liberal definition than the players. Which is good. Were it that simple just comparing it to a pure game like stock Diku, but there are some pretty dramatic differences in role-play style compared with pure storyteller, freestyle or game mastered role-playing muds.

One thing I noticed that's different on RPI muds is the attitude towards a simulationist aspect being present. That is players are roleplaying against/with an environment. Coming from playing role-playing mushes, for the most part the players implement the environment or the reality. There's a lot more player control over the world. Yes our clothes get dusty, wet, torn, there are storms, and earthquakes, and our food tastes different probably in more ways than one could imagine or code.

There's also the presence of goal-based game that doesn't have anything to do with role-play; that is to say can be gamed, min/maxed mechanically like D&D, Gurps or Rolemaster. If you think about it, absent role-play enforcement, an RPI mud would devolve into a pure hack-slash mud. On many of the other styles of role-playing muds that don't have the goal-based game, absent role-play enforcement they would devolve into purely social environments like a talker and/or building based toy environments (i.e LambaMOO).

BTW I've also played and enjoyed many hack-n-slash muds as well like Artic, Batmud, Sojourn, and Ground Zero. I don't believe most people play specific games or even game types to the exclusion of others. I enjoy chess, card games, baseball, volleyball, quake, age of empires, civilization, wargaming, pen and paper rpgs, zork-style games, diplomacy, as well as role-playing muds.

I even play and enjoy the rather low role-playing immersion of a tabletop D&D dungeon hack-n-slash at the kitchen table, as well as the higher immersion of a tabletop Ars Magica campaign. One thing that would turn me off totally from a tabletop RPG is a game master who wouldn't tolerate any OOC social interaction between the players at all, or ran a game based solely on the game mechanics without making any judgements or situational rules up to handle events. Hmm I think that's gets to the core why I don't particularly enjoy RPI muds, or what some call RPIs.

12-28-2004, 06:39 PM	#42
Posts: n/a	It seems the implementors have a more liberal definition than the players. Which is good. Were it that simple just comparing it to a pure game like stock Diku, but there are some pretty dramatic differences in role-play style compared with pure storyteller, freestyle or game mastered role-playing muds. One thing I noticed that's different on RPI muds is the attitude towards a simulationist aspect being present. That is players are roleplaying against/with an environment. Coming from playing role-playing mushes, for the most part the players implement the environment or the reality. There's a lot more player control over the world. Yes our clothes get dusty, wet, torn, there are storms, and earthquakes, and our food tastes different probably in more ways than one could imagine or code. There's also the presence of goal-based game that doesn't have anything to do with role-play; that is to say can be gamed, min/maxed mechanically like D&D, Gurps or Rolemaster. If you think about it, absent role-play enforcement, an RPI mud would devolve into a pure hack-slash mud. On many of the other styles of role-playing muds that don't have the goal-based game, absent role-play enforcement they would devolve into purely social environments like a talker and/or building based toy environments (i.e LambaMOO). BTW I've also played and enjoyed many hack-n-slash muds as well like Artic, Batmud, Sojourn, and Ground Zero. I don't believe most people play specific games or even game types to the exclusion of others. I enjoy chess, card games, baseball, volleyball, quake, age of empires, civilization, wargaming, pen and paper rpgs, zork-style games, diplomacy, as well as role-playing muds. I even play and enjoy the rather low role-playing immersion of a tabletop D&D dungeon hack-n-slash at the kitchen table, as well as the higher immersion of a tabletop Ars Magica campaign. One thing that would turn me off totally from a tabletop RPG is a game master who wouldn't tolerate any OOC social interaction between the players at all, or ran a game based solely on the game mechanics without making any judgements or situational rules up to handle events. Hmm I think that's gets to the core why I don't particularly enjoy RPI muds, or what some call RPIs.