[MUD-Dev] Re: Spoofing (Psychopaths)

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

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ola Fosheim Grøstad [mailto:olag#ifi,uio.no]
> Sent: Monday, October 05, 1998 3:45 PM
> To: mud-dev#kanga,nu
> Subject: [MUD-Dev] Spoofing (Psychopaths)
> 
> 
> Koster, Raph wrote:
> > > From: Ola Fosheim Grøstad [mailto:olag#ifi,uio.no]
> 
> > > Why are developers so eager to embrace the more
> > > hysterical/stereotypical
> > > writings on muds? (Dibbell, Bartle...)
> > Well, they also happen to be two of the best things written 
> about muds,
> > IMHO.
> 
> I guess I must be blind then. :) (Farmer, Turkle, Suler, Kim, 
> Cherny and even the VR guys do better I think.

I find all of their writings to be very good as well. This doesn't
detract from what I said...

>  Dibbell is entertaining.

It's a good dramatization of a particular incident, nothing more,
nothing less.

>  Bartle is oversimplifying and selling a simple solution to a complex 
> problem with no apparent support.

I don't actually see very many real solutions in the essay. The solution
offered ("keep the differing groups in the right proportion") is vague
enough to not be a solution at all. 

> Btw, did you notice how many references he 
> has that has
> zero to do with the problem he is writing about?)

Yes, I did note that. :)

> > I find Bartle's paper useful in that is classifies and presents some
> > classic dichotomies clearly. Like all classifications, it 
> is inexact and
> > cannot be regarded as an absolute. But it serves as a great 
> springboard
> > for discussion.
> Great springboard for not-so-great discussions in which that 
> all-important
> player motivation/psychology is neglected. IMHO.  Taking 
> "things" at surface
> value isn't a good thing, especially when you are dealing with humans.

Hmm... I don't know, I've seen some very good discussions on this very
list that had that essay or its classifications as a springboard...
Certainly many of those discussions have touched upon player
motivations, as well.

> What I mean is that the main idea with the "rape" is to make the user
loose
> control over his/her most personal sphere. In a MUD this is the
identity.
> This can be prevented by design.

[snip example of spoof versus emote]

>   It is primarily attributed to you,
> not to me. You are not invading my privacy yet, you are 
> attacking it.  I admit that you can make the latter more intense by
repeating 
> it over a long period of time.

Yes; most players in my experience would term this harassment just from
a single case, though they might not call an admin over it after just
one incident.

> (What I find interesting about The Palace is that "spoofing" 
> is actually a deliberate design choice, and social control is
preferred 
> over removing the functionality.)

Interesting. I had never noticed that about The Palace. How does it work
out?

-Raph