From: lwl@widget.seas.upenn.edu (Lydia Leong)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.misc,rec.games.mud.tiny,rec.games.mud.admin
Subject: Re: Roleplaying
Date: 12 Dec 92 03:19:14 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.mud.misc
Organization: Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow

[ This is in reply to Geoff Tuffli, responding to Edward Wallace's question,
  "How do you think roleplaying should be encouraged on a MU*?" ]


Tiny-type MUDs and MUDders, from my experience, can be loosely classified 
into one of the following groups:

1. Social. These people want to hang out, have a good time, program a
   few objects, and not really have to worry about "responsibility" in
   VR. TinyTIM is a good example of a MUD which caters to this type of
   player.

2. Thematic. These players enjoy playing under the constraints of a theme,
   but they want relative freedom to "do their own thing". MUDs of this type
   don't follow a clearly defined storyline, but try to encourage role-playing.
   PernMUSH, ImageCastle, and TrekMUSE are good examples.

3. Role-playing. These players enjoy being intensively involved in a
   character and a plot. Some kind of internal structure, or at least an
   extremely clearly defined theme, needs to exist. Belgariad, Mua'Kaar,
   and Amber are examples of this kind of MUD. They tend to require large
   amounts of the player's time, and are best characterized as "intense".

Some players move from one category to another, depending on what MUD
they are on. Most people have a preference for one particular category,
though; players who prefer pure-social MUDs are EXTREMELY unlikely to
play a very intense RPG-oriented MUD.

Geoff Tuffli (tuff@ellis.uchicago.edu) writes:
>There has been some amount of argument as to WHY there is more role-playing
>on Mua'kaar and Belgariad than other places, and there seem to be a couple
>of possible answers. One idea, the least likely, IMHO, is that the detailed
>systems of combat, economy, and such forth is doing it. While it is entirely
>possible, even likely, from my experience that the systems encourage and
>give further opportunities to role-play, I don't think this is the primary
>factor. The other, and more likely possibility in my mind is a very strict
>enforcement of theme.

I assert that a MUD is placed in one category or another by the attitudes
of its administrators.

I believe that forcing players to go through the effort of learning a 
bunch of complex "systems" very rapidly eliminates those people who do 
not enjoy such systems. The systems may aid such role-playing (for example,
the implementation of the Amber Diceless system on AmberMUSH is quite useful
for creating "special effects" and deciding RPG confrontations, since there
are no "judges" of events there), but they are not directly responsible for
encouraging it. What *is* causing an increased proportion of role-players
is the fact that intense RPG MUDs scare off players who _aren't_ that
intense.

Strict enforcement of theme does not necessarily encourage role-playing.
The PernMUSHes, for example, generally fail to have long-term plots.
Role-playing is encouraged by a player base whose primary reason for 
MUDding is intensive role-playing. Such a player base is attracted by
an administration (or a small group of core players) whom deliberately make
it difficult _not_ to role-play.

I do believe that a strict enforcement of a theme is necessary for an
intense role-playing environment. It's difficult to build up a huge plot
involving the need for a certain artifact to storm a medieval castle, 
when another player can come up with a character concept from the 20th
century, and brings along a couple of pounds of TNT. 

>Despite the fact of being extremely harsh, in my opinion, in enforcing theme
>on Mua'kaar, we've jumped since opening to having about 30-40 people in prime
>time hours, and judging from @doings, at least half to 3/4 seem to be in
>character.

There is rarely "nothing to do" on an intense-RPG MUD, because someone
somewhere is always plotting something. MUDs where things are going on
generally find it fairly easy to attract people.

Note that I am not, by any means, asserting that good role-playing must
necessarily be intensive. I have seen several excellent characterizations
and small-scale plots on thematic MUSHes. I also believe that thematic
MUDs are generally friendlier to beginners than intense-RPG MUDs; the
learning curve is not nearly as high. In addition, it is possible to be
casually involved in a thematic MUD. Being off-line for a week on an
intense-RPG MUD can frequently result in becoming _completely_ lost.

The question then becomes what _type_ of role-playing one wishes to
encourage - "general IC-ness" or goal-directed/plot-driven?
They are distinctly different things.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lydia Leong - CSE '94 | Amberyl@Pern  | "Just try to make sure that Polgara's
lwl@seas.upenn.edu    | Polgara@Aldur |  not in the vicinity of anything 
lwl@imsasun.imsa.edu  | The Belgariad |  breakable when she gets angry. Like
lwl@csa.bu.edu        | "Why me?"     |  large cities and mountain ranges."
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Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.misc