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Drug Addiction Integrated Into Achaea MUD
An anonymous reader writes "The text-based MUD Achaea, one of Iron Realms Entertainment's games, has introduced an addictive drug called gleam into its world, during a plot involving a wide-ranging crime ring. On discovery, a number of players, eager for a new experience, took enough gleam to become immediate addicts, leading to head-twitching, speed-talking druggies polluting the land here and there. Several player cities have already outlawed the drug, and there are some very sorry addicts going through a painful withdrawal that can last up to 25 hours of playing time. It'll be interesting to see if anyone considers the tangible benefit (increased dexterity) that one gets worth the heavy cost of the drug on both the character's bank account and on the player's psyche. At least one real-life recovering addict has used the in-game forums to loudly object to the introduction of gleam."
Considering RPGing is pretty much an addiction itself.
Like the woman that had her kids taken way because she wouldn't stop playing everquest.
I hope my city illegalizes RPGs
So many of the world's problems could be solved if we could separate the intellectual wheat from the chaff, so to speak: those people who can't differentiate fantasy from reality, or who are prone to getting hooked on whatever "big thing" that comes along, be it drugs, alcohol, pornography, roleplaying games, or tax legislation.
Those people who can't handle reality should be pulled out of it and treated like the children they are. They're giving the rest of us a bad name. If they can't tell fantasy from reality, we shouldn't let them watch television. And if they're terminally gullible, they probably shouldn't be allowed to vote; politicians can be tricky.
I'd vote technocrat, only I've got nobody to vote for.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
I have been programming MUDs for a good few years, and this is nothing new. There have been MUDs around that have "diseases", "sicknesses", hell, even some had "stds." Nothing new; although most of them didn't advertise it like it was a special gametype or something.
I'm f#$king magic!
This is never going to model real drug addiction for one simple reason - MMORPGs cannot model euphoria, the reason people take addictive drugs. People don't get hooked on crack because they're stupid, they get hooked on crack because it feels better than anything else. No amount of buffs can simulate that kind of incentive.
I play Ashen Empires. It doesn't have addiction, but it has the next thing. Alcoholic drinks restore the appetite bar, but drain the stamina bar sharply (making it more difficult to run, especially while carrying a heavy load of loot or ore or whatever you were doing, making you attack slower, and making it impossible to cast spells). It only takes a minute or so to get back up to about 70% (where many people try to keep stamina), but in the meantime, you're a sitting duck to anything or anyone who comes by and wants to kill you. When ales were first introduced, people were hitting up the few people who had quest exp saved up to raise their brewing skills early on for beer. Good brewers made a lot of money that day. After about six hours, though, people realized that the stamina drain was a serious limitation, and nobody uses beer except when they're inside a safezone chatting and notice their blue bar nearly empty - even then beef stew or even keeping a stockpile of mutton or venisen is better and far cheaper (The best beer is 75 gp, the best food is about 30, and helps more than the best beer).
End result: In any RPG, gameplay will always have an impact on RP. Anoter example: Fallout II. Jet gives some pretty impressive benefits. More than enough to turn the tides in an otherwise hopeless fight. But the cost (buying/finding/looting enough Jet, or the stat drain and endless withdrawl if you don't can't) mean that it's not worth the effort.
Drugs have a disadvantage in games: They effect the character, but not the player behind the character. Real drugs give with one hand and take with all the others. In a game, you don't really have anything forcing you to keep taking the drug. You know that if you put up with the disadvantages of withdrawal for a while, and give up the advantages of addiction, you'll more than make up for it by saving all that money for new equipment. All you have to do is put up with reduced performance for 25 hours. During that time, you can still think as clearly as normal, and you can easily keep your eye on all those extra gp you're going to have once it's all done.
In real life, you can say all that, but it's different. Every smoker knows the numbers: Stop smoking, and in two years you have enough money for a new car. The problem in real life is that 25 hours spent in agony. After a day or so of ciggarette withdrawal, you can't think about the money you'd save by quitting. Instead, all you can think about is that if you just give in and have a smoke, the headaches and twitches would go away.