Slashdot Mirror

Indeed, it was the form letter that we both got, along with anyone else who went to the trouble. As I was typing the original post I intended to explain what the whole mail-in-for-omitted-Reunion-Scene scenario was all about, but forgot.

After some googling, I found a on-line copy of the letter that Ballantine Books sends out to those who request the reunion scene. (Or at least they used to - I requested mine back in 1990 or so - I hope they still send it.)

See it here.

blakespot

Ancient Anguish has had such substances available for a number of years. They pose no problem. I can quit anytime I want. Really.

That's Multi-User-Dungeon! Play a real text based adventure at: Ancient Anguish

Is this just another step so managers don't actually have to talk to people or pay attention to what is going on in their shop?

Ancient Anguish

Ancient Anguish

It ought to be possible to handle in-game theft with in-game consequences. I don't have much experience with the latest crop of MMORPGs, but I'll draw on an example from Ancient Anguish, a MUD I used to play.

In Ancient Anguish, thieves existed as a character class with the ability to do certain not-nice things to other characters, such as steal their items, poison food/heals, etc. However, just like in the real world, society frowned on stealing what didn't belong to you. Hence, in-game laws existed which prohibited theft from players even though the gaming mechanisms existed. This parallels real life, where you can certainly try to steal things, but woe to you if you were caught.

The probability of success was appropriately propertional to things like the value of the item, the level and stats of the thief/victims, lighting conditions, and so forth. Unsuccessful attempts had a (non-negligible) chance of being noticed by the victim and/or bystanders. Anyone witnessing theft could file a report with the local in-game authorities, who would then place a "bounty" on the head of the thief. This resulted in a large number of PC bounty hunters (which was a popular profession) being given license to hunt down and PK the player -- kind of a rough "frontier justice". Since death resulted in loss of a level and stats, this represented a serious deterrence to thieving.

In this fashion, in-game theft could be made to parallel real theft. It was certainly possible to steal things, but you better not get caught or you'd be in trouble with the rest of society. It also taught other players that they had to be careful with their items and money, and to consider buying safeguards or insurance.

The same framework can be (and was, in AA) extended to any other sort of activity that society would frown upon, such as PK'ing or griefing. Most players agreed the approach worked very well in discouraging unwanted activity; in fact, by adding societal values to the game just like in real life, it actually helped make the game feel more realistic.

It ought to be possible to handle in-game theft with in-game consequences. I don't have much experience with the latest crop of MMORPGs, but I'll draw on an example from Ancient Anguish, a MUD I used to play.

In Ancient Anguish, thieves existed as a character class with the ability to do certain not-nice things to other characters, such as steal their items, poison food/heals, etc. However, just like in the real world, society frowned on stealing what didn't belong to you. Hence, in-game laws existed which prohibited theft from players even though the gaming mechanisms existed. This parallels real life, where you can certainly try to steal things, but woe to you if you were caught.

The probability of success was appropriately propertional to things like the value of the item, the level and stats of the thief/victims, lighting conditions, and so forth. Unsuccessful attempts had a (non-negligible) chance of being noticed by the victim and/or bystanders. Anyone witnessing theft could file a report with the local in-game authorities, who would then place a "bounty" on the head of the thief. This resulted in a large number of PC bounty hunters (which was a popular profession) being given license to hunt down and PK the player -- kind of a rough "frontier justice". Since death resulted in loss of a level and stats, this represented a serious deterrence to thieving.

In this fashion, in-game theft could be made to parallel real theft. It was certainly possible to steal things, but you better not get caught or you'd be in trouble with the rest of society. It also taught other players that they had to be careful with their items and money, and to consider buying safeguards or insurance.

The same framework can be (and was, in AA) extended to any other sort of activity that society would frown upon, such as PK'ing or griefing. Most players agreed the approach worked very well in discouraging unwanted activity; in fact, by adding societal values to the game just like in real life, it actually helped make the game feel more realistic.

It has laws, and a functioning half-democracy, that is there are in-game elections, and the elected do have a say in the running of the world.

It is fully player-run and player-owned. That is, the hardware we run on is bougth and paid for with (completely voluntarily) player donations over the years.

It is huge. Both in size, and in complexity, there's no end at all to the things you can do, places to explore, skills to learn...

It has a large and quite stable player-base, while still avoiding to be so huge that you never know anyone. Typically there's around 100 mortals online at any one time.

On the other hand, this could result in more difficulties for owners of domain names that are related to trademarked names. Stronger protection could result in more support for the trademark owner.

As usual, either way, the lawyers win.

Patrick
Ancient Anguish: Free, fun, open-ended.

>>It looks like I'm staying with Ancient Anguish >>[anguish.org] for a while longer.

The trolls will really like this page that describes how to Finger an Ancient Anguish player.

There is nothing new under the sun. If you want to make a lasting mark in a virtual environment, there are a number of text-based MUDs who would value your contributions. My personal favorite is Ancient Anguish. After demonstrating some familiarity with the world, players may choose to become developers and add to the enviroment. There are literally dozens of active coders and thousands of players.

Text-based MUDs are also an excellent way to learn the basics of coding. The interactive environment is much more interesting to work in than the typical IDE.

You can try out Ancient Anguish by telnet to anguish.org, port 2222.

There are a large number of online, multiplayer roleplaying games, similar in theme if not in style to EverQuest, that are free (as in beer) to their players. My personal favorite, Ancient Anguish, is one of the largest and has been running continuously for ten years.

The most compelling aspect of these games is not the gameplay, for most players, but the social interactions. I know of several married couples who met on the MUD. Quite possibly the social aspects are enhanced by the lack of fees. It would be interesting to see a similar study done on some of the free MUDs.