Re: [MUD-Dev] Re:)

[caliban#darklock,com (Caliban Tiresias Darklock)]

On Sun, 31 Aug 1997 08:37:27 PST8PDT, Adam Wiggins
<nightfall#user2,inficad.com> wrote:

>I personally don't find on-line sex to be even mildly interesting,
>therefore we've ignored the whole subject completely.  Is this a mistake?

I certainly don't think so. I think when you provide large and carefully
prepared systems for netsex, you actually encourage it, while when you
ignore it entirely people end up finding a way to do it anyway. Since I
doubt you want your MUD to be a haven for this sort of thing, providing
a system would be a Bad Idea. When you provide something that makes all
the netsexers happy, they tell their friends, and those friends tell
THEIR friends, and before you know it the whole place is overrun by sex
fiends. The 'weird sex' community, whether it be netsex or homosexuality
or BDSM or what have you, is pretty tightly knit and VERY communicative.
When you provide a nice comfy environment for one of them, a bunch more
are going to show up. In many cases this isn't a bad thing at all; more
than one bar owner has been accepting of a single homosexual couple and
found that over the course of several months his place of business
becomes an unofficial gay bar. But they pay their tabs, rarely start
fights, and generally are a good class of customer, so that's no problem
at all. However, when your MUD starts getting overwhelmed by netsexers,
you have a lot of sockets being taken up by people who aren't at ALL
interested in the game you've put together and just want to run around
being Don Juan or Lady Chatterley. This is destructive to your other
players, in several ways; first, that the MUD has so many people logged
on, and second, that a great number of players expect everyone there to
be interested in netsex. This can disrupt a true gamer's enjoyment of
the game.

And before someone jumps on me as a net prude, or as being 'against'
netsex, I *do* indulge in and enjoy netsex. But I don't think it belongs
on a MUD, and I'm very offended at the idea of people logging onto a
game that I've spent months designing and balancing just so they can sit
around in some out of the way place and talk dirty to each other. There
are plenty of better places to do this, including a lot of places which
allow you to create your own private room where you won't be disturbed.
I think giving them incentive to come onto a MUD intended for gaming is
a really dumb idea, unless you want to do SexMUD where everyone runs
around naked and orgies are encouraged. 

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 You see me now, a veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I've been 
 living on the edge so long, where the winds of limbo roar. And 
 I'm young enough to get involved, too old to see, all the scars 
 are on the inside; I'm not sure that there's anything left of me
               -- Blue Oyster Cult, "Veteran of the Psychic Wars"
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