RE: [MUD-Dev] CGDC dinner

["Joe Andrieu" <joe#andrieu,net>]

J C Lawrence wrote:
> Hurm.
> 
> Conceptually I look at the two as potential energy versus kinetic
> energy.  They're both exactly the same thing, measured in exactly
> the same units, it just that one is in the process of moving.  This
> has the advantage of also bring in the concept of the difference
> between static and dynamic friction in regards to rates of change of
> energy levels.  If you look at it that way, the problems with
> hoarding degrade into problems with over-charged batteries or large
> weights being held up -- things that the RL universe conspires
> against thru simple decay (unpopular with players), and its less
> obvious osmotic counterpart entropy (things leak back towards
> zero-sum steady-state (ie decay)).

Yeah, that's a nice way to look at it. 

 
> Entrpoy is a concept that doesn't seem tobe directly dealt with much
> in current game designs (other than the crude level of direct object
> decay).  The Ur/Meta/Instantiated object concept potentially
> provides a model here for gross entropic events (bank robberies?,
> thief silently replaces your mega-sword with a tinfoil sham without
> your noticing?).


Ouch.  That could get dangerous.  But if done well--and predictably so, then it might work.
 
> > And if we have a consumer economy, why not create a debt mechanism
> > so players could buy gear on credit and go adventure to pay for
> > it--very motivational and more challenging than the endless hack
> > to scrape a few coins together to upgrade my dagger to a short
> > sword.  And if they can't pay back the credit when credit is due,
> > when, just think Loan Shark and some very interesting in-game
> > solutions pop up.  This of course also creates a direct mechanism
> > for managing the money supply, a la Greenspan and the Federal
> > Reserve.
> 
> I'd find it a little more interesting to create active supports for
> players to play bankers, loan sharks etc.  Make the players
> instantiate the financial industries, along with all the normal
> safeguargs (and their costs) or lack of such safeguards (and lesser
> costs), and all the normal mafioso-style interesting behaviour that
> surrounds it.


Heh.  That's certainly a lot more fun.  And perhaps you can keep the "Greenspan control knob" that you get when you regulate the interest rate.  Set a prime rate that only the most trustworthy can get from the game's institutions and let players fill in the rest of the hierarchy.  It'd be kind of fun to play a loan shark... Of course, it'd be nice if you could just break someone's fingers or legs without trying to kill them, but I guess we are all working towards more realistic simulations. ;)

-j




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