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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."
Now I can be addicted to a game and IN the game at the same time.. How progressive =)
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
Keep the effects simple, the price high. It will be interesting to see the effects on the dynamics of the game. Will it model the real world?
It could be a good experiment this!
For problems, seek only the simplest solution, complexity brings with it more problems.
At least one real-life recovering addict has used the in-game forums to loudly object to the introduction of gleam.
That's odd. It seems to me that looking at the effects of a drug on a fake world to see what might happen is a very interesting sociological experiment. It's hard to produce real-world effects in a static model, if only for the fact that people tend to do unpredictable things. But stick a drug with real effects (and benefits and detriments, just like a real drug) into a world run by diverse peoples, and you just might see a mirroring of real-world behavior regarding it.
It's interesting that cities have banned the drug; I would've thought something like that wouldn't be controlled at a governmental level in a MUD. I wonder if the drug actually forces the user to do things he/she wouldn't want to do, such as kill somebody or steal from them in order to get enough money to buy more gleam. If that's the case, it's more understandable why cities would want to keep it away from their walls. I'm also assuming that this MUD is PK-able?
I think this is cool. But then again, I've always preferred that art imitate life.
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.
The really evil twist is as follows... for every additional drink of SotS you take, you get the same ability boost... but the mandatory interval between your doses of "antidote" shortens by a day... so after 2 drinks of SotS, you need to drink the antidote at least once every 27 days... after 3 doses, you need to take the antidote on a 26 day cycle... etc etc...
This effect is cumulative, and (to date) there is no cure. However... the allure of the benefits that this potion can bring has driven a lot of people to become completely dependent on the antidote - having to log in every few days to make sure they get their fix and their character stays alive(!)
Of course, most people think: "Hey, I can handle one drink... the consequences aren't so bad..." - but once you're on the slippery slope to addiction.... ;)
Some context: When you're offline in ATITD, you accumulate "waypoint time" which is used to instantly warp around the game world. It's as if your character has been running the whole time you were logged out, and then you direct where it was he was running to.
This waypoint time is very precious! There is just one way to get more, aside from taking a break from play: you can drink "Speed of the Serpent", which instantly gives you 24 hours of waypoint time. There's a catch: from that point forward, you must drink some cabbage juice (super-easy to get) at least once every 30 real-life days. If you forget (the game even reminds you), or fail to log in during that time, you die: game over, account cancelled, no refunds.
You can do additional shots of Speed of the Serpent for additional 24 hour awards, but then the every-30-day rule changes to every-29-days, then every-28-days, etc.
What's interesting is that the player is the one "addicted", not the character!
We've had about 20 deaths.
If use of gleam can raise a character's dexterity, and if long time players have amassed a sizable pile of treasure they have no other use for, will some players see gleam as a way to make their characters even stronger?
I can almost imagine gleam use/addiction being a status symbol of some sort ... for those characters that can easily afford it. Or maybe gleam is a means to try and bleed some extra cash out of characters with too much coin.
Either way, I'm glad I don't play this game.
-- V
I however find them usually poorly done in gameplay. It is like all those potions in baldurs gate. Protection against gold, protection against heat, protection against electricity, protection against undead on a friday except on a full moon.
WHO HAS THE TIME!!!!
Geez I am playing a fantasy role of a babarian. Not a bloody chemist. Just sell all those bloody things and spend it on simple healing stuff or even better. Heavy hitters. Who cares is a monster has some weird special attack when one hit puts it down.
I am currently playing Star Wars Galaxies and it got a shitload of drugs/buffs/foods/drinks all wich boost some stat some with some negative after effects. Problem? there are so many that people only bother with 1 or 2 of them. Maybe a 3rd on occasion and all the rest is ignored.
Why? Well I doubt it is an objection to the idea of drugs but more likely that people don't just want to bother. First you got to find a buyer. Then find the money to buy it. Then find the right time to use it. Most of the stuff has short duration and is expensive so you only want to use it when you really need it. Plus the better stuff has after effects so you want to make sure you don't get the downer in the middle of battle.
So drugs in this game are not very intrestting.
It would be intresting to see how a drug would do that has some real and easy to exploit advantages. Say that all your stats go up for a full day but that also has some major side effects like addiction and perhaps overtime less effectivness (so you need more and more just to get the same buzz) and perhaps mental problems like your avatar walking away from battle to look at the pretty colors. Make it illegal in game too so that both imperials and rebels will be looking for it and the components needed.
Then again the real study of addiction is those games themselves. I know SWG is crap with an endless list of bugs and constantly newly introduced bugs, the latest is that mission payouts are not shared out amount the group anymore and sometimes not even being payed out to the mission owner, and yet I keep playing. It is nice weather outside and yet I am inside playing a game that is more an exercise in frustation then fun. At least real world drug addicts can consider themselves cool rebels without a cause. I am just a nerd.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Hasn't this already been done in Fallout? I know Achaea is a MUD and therefore realtime/MM/etc, but Fallout had a number of drugs that you could use, get boosts from, get addicted to and go through withdrawl from. Hell, two of the abilities you chose while rolling your character determined whether you were highly resistant or highly affected by drugs.
--trb
Spice? Several Dune MUDs are in existence and the whole of that world revolves around an addictive substance. Why should gleam be viewed as any different than melange? Certainly introducing an addictive substance that has benefits into a society is going to cause changes to that society, but it will make for an interesting experiement. I think I need to start playing Achaea again just to see what happens.
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!
MUDs, wherefrom the MMORPGs truly spring, have had addictive substances for quite a while now.
I think BatMUD has had tobacco addiction for as long as I can remember. Which would be something like since 1994-6 or something. Quite likely also earlier than that.
The drift of the story -undoubtedly submitted by one of the industrious Achaea PR folks- seems to be that Achaea invented the drug addiction code. This is incorrect -there have been many instances of similar implementations in the past.
/. shallowly disguised as news or articles -there are many as good and even more better MUDs out there (not that Achaea is particularly bad), with better code, better storylines, better administration and better players. 'd rather read about MUDs in general rather than these moronic innuendos.
I am, frankly, sick and tired of reading advertisements for Achaea on
Achaea uses the same questionable advertising style on many forums. It is one of the few apparently commercially successful text-based game companies of the time, but this is entirely unnecessary.
Please, do not post this crap anymore.
Marxist evolution is just N generations away!