Re: Ultima Online: boon or bust?

From: Andy Bodkin <andybod@b0dders.demon.co.uk>

Date: Sat, 09 Jan 1999 00:00:00 +0000

In article <19990108233307.01788.00000911@ng-fw1.aol.com>, JonMMorris
<jonmmorris@aol.com> writes
>  Then, join or round up some other players and look for an
>adventure.  Travel out of town and get jumped by "player-killers" or PK's who
>may or may not be using cheater programs that render themselves invisible
>(wearing "black" cloth on a black background), allow them to cast unlimited
>spells that always hit their target, or freeze your character on-screen despite
>your pounding on your keyboard in frustration.

Ah yes, PK's - the curse of MUD's and now from the sound of it, Ultima
Online, and to a lesser extent 'normal' PBM 'role-playing' games which
are computer moderated such as Quest. Always difficult to know how to
deal with them - if you ban them completely, then you artificially limit
the game world but if not, how do you ensure everyone can have fun ?

The best option therefore seems to be an attempted control through the
game-world itself - Quest does it through the alliance system, i.e. if
you kill me my buddies will come and get you, which is fine, except for
those, like myself, who prefer to control just their own party and not
get involved in the 'grand scheme of things'.

Personally, I like the way Dungeon seems to be controlling it, the game-
world itself will react if you kill another player, which is murder,
unlike killing monsters, by issuing warrants and law enforcers coming to
look for you and so forth. Seems like a good way to attempt to cut down
on it, though still being a relatively new game, we'll have to wait and
see how it works in practice. Something similar could be implemented in
online games, I'd have thought - kill another player and the King's Men
will be looking for you.

I also can't see the attraction of being a 'PK' myself, selfishly
ruining others fun, whoop de doo. On the other hand, a killer of player
killer's does appeal :) How about it Steve, for consideration for
Dungeon - a King's Bounty Hunter type position ?

Regards,

--
Andy Bodkin     'They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..'
                Last words-Union General Sedgwick, Battle of Spotsylvania

References

Re: Ultima Online: boon or bust?
kmgraphiks@aol.com (KMGraphiks)
Fri, 08 Jan 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Ultima Online: boon or bust?
jonmmorris@aol.com (JonMMorris)
Sat, 09 Jan 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Ultima Online: boon or bust?
kmgraphiks@aol.com (KMGraphiks)
Fri, 08 Jan 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Ultima Online: boon or bust?
jonmmorris@aol.com (JonMMorris)
Sat, 09 Jan 1999 00:00:00 +0000