[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun

["Koster, Raph" <rkoster#origin,ea.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Caliban Tiresias Darklock [mailto:caliban#darklock,com]
> Sent: Thursday, July 23, 1998 6:10 PM
> To: mud-dev#kanga,nu
> Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun 
> I've always wondered exactly what a reputation system does 
> for the game
> other than divide your players into groups and "sides" that 
> the game can
> automatically sort for the convenient reference of any and 
> all sides. I
> don't see any benefit to it. What is it for? To determine NPC 
> reactions? To
> determine magic item ownership? There seems to be this 
> "good/evil" division
> we create in our games, and I just don't see the point.

Alignment and reputation are not necessarily equivalent at all. A
reputation system a la UO (or for that matter a la EBay auction site)
are more for the sake of players trying to identify one another's
behavior patterns quickly and easily. UO's scale has three
factors--player-reported bad deeds, which are analogous to this sort of
reputation; "karma" which is analogous to alignment, and has virtually
no effect on the game proper except a title; and "fame" which is
basically experience points. These three things go into a title players
can see.

-Raph