Re: [MUD-Dev] Re:)

[Adam Wiggins <nightfall#user2,inficad.com>]

[Ola:]
> [Adam:]
> >Hmmm...MUDs are sexually interesting to men?  If I can think of any
> 
> Research suggests so, yes?  Women play male characters to avoid attention,
> yes?

Hum, okay.  I guess I thought these were people who were looking for
some sort of cheap thrill, not an immersive role-playing experience.
I'm starting to wonder if there isn't overlap.

> >two things in my life which have absolutely NOTHING to do with one
> >another, it's mudding and sex.
> 
> Well, research shows that knowing the other player's gender is important
> for most users. If that isn't remotly related to sex, then I don't know..

Hmmm.  I could honestly care less about the person that's controlling
the characters I'm interacting with, unless I get to know them on a personal
(OOC) level, which happens frequently enough, but I don't ever recall
it having anything to do with sex.

> >> MUDs should deal with sexually related topics or allow for erotic
> >> fantasies etc, simply because flirt and erotic behaviour is an
> >> important component in communication among adults.
> >
> >Okay, now here's an interesting topic.  Define 'deal with..'?
> >Should the mud have commands like 'french kiss', 'fondle', 'feel up',
> >'perform cunnilingus', 'bite nipple', etc etc?  If it does, should these
> >commands do anything other than a fancy emote?  Or should these commands
> >not exist, and everything be left to emotes?
> 
> You are making things very technical.  Deal with, could be:
> - provide secure private spaces

We do this, but that's because there are many non-sex related reasons you'd
want to be with someone in private.  The lack of any completely secure
communication, for example.

> - provide affectionate items (roses and other symbolic items)

Well, you can pick any plant which happens to be growing wherever your character
is located.  Among those are quite a few flowers.  I never thought anyone would
pick them for reasons other than for making opium, but you certainly could.

> - provide nice clothing

Most of the clothing and jewelery we have availible is completely ornamental.
Most of it is quite expensive, as well.  The difference between a penniless
adventurer and a well-to-do merchant should be extremely obvious.

> - make some areas more erotic and romantic than others, if some users are
>   disturbed by erotic games, they can go other places. (hard to do in a
>   text-only system of course)

Erotic like a secluded forest or a hidden waterfall, or erotic like
blantant phallic imagery?  The former is implict, I think, in creating
a beautiful fantasy world...exotic and impossible beautiful locales.

> >partners.  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?
> 
> No, not with your approach.  But then again, you haven't said that you want
> to maximize the user's ability to express themselves and communicate.

Well, I certainly don't want to restrict it, although we feel compelled
to because of the nature of the game.  Just wondering how this will
be received; our alpha tests are restricted to a dozen or so RL friends
who aren't very interested in having sex with one another.