Why, yes, I imagine it is acceptable for an author to kill off someone in his book. I never really thought about that before.
No, customers aren't puppets, but they aren't automatons either. They're meant to have emotions, and Teppy played to their emotions by giving them something they didn't expect. Some of them took it as an insult, some of them took it in stride. He did not break discrimination laws in this event, either...although female characters could not trade directly with Malaki, there is no reason why they could not have a male character do it on their behalf.
Ian Malcolm wants a word with you. Get in the car.
The reason the whole ATITD thing went amiss is because a lot of players actually model their characters' actions with how they would act in real life. There's some feedback there. I severely doubt any players in this game are so nuts about Egypt that they'd go so far as to believe that old folk tale about pyramids sharpening razors, or they'd go mad finding and pointing out every tiny inaccuracy they could. Sure, Egypt is viewed by them as a touchy-happy-cat-loving society where nothing could go wrong. In our case, it can't be a perfect society, but we try and build something that works...because it's a game, and most people realize that.
I can't personally blame those who thought it wasn't just RP, though. The initial shock of such a thing happening is a bit much for anybody.
Slashdot Mirror
Why, yes, I imagine it is acceptable for an author to kill off someone in his book. I never really thought about that before.
No, customers aren't puppets, but they aren't automatons either. They're meant to have emotions, and Teppy played to their emotions by giving them something they didn't expect. Some of them took it as an insult, some of them took it in stride. He did not break discrimination laws in this event, either...although female characters could not trade directly with Malaki, there is no reason why they could not have a male character do it on their behalf.
Ian Malcolm wants a word with you. Get in the car.
The reason the whole ATITD thing went amiss is because a lot of players actually model their characters' actions with how they would act in real life. There's some feedback there. I severely doubt any players in this game are so nuts about Egypt that they'd go so far as to believe that old folk tale about pyramids sharpening razors, or they'd go mad finding and pointing out every tiny inaccuracy they could. Sure, Egypt is viewed by them as a touchy-happy-cat-loving society where nothing could go wrong. In our case, it can't be a perfect society, but we try and build something that works...because it's a game, and most people realize that.
I can't personally blame those who thought it wasn't just RP, though. The initial shock of such a thing happening is a bit much for anybody.