tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post6840910518990091390..comments2023-05-27T11:14:02.426-04:00Comments on Some Space to Think: Road to Amber, Lessons 6 Through 10Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-59106436507644303832009-11-24T13:50:54.234-05:002009-11-24T13:50:54.234-05:00Honestly, your secret weapon for prop rot is to fi...Honestly, your secret weapon for prop rot is to find someone (if possible) willing to take it on who understands writing and the structure of stories...because they will WANT to introduce strife and change in their prop, and if skilled, will do so in such a way that doesn't seem like a hostile takeover (like one MUSH who decided that this prop needs a clean slate, so everybody in that sphere dies!)<br /><br />Of course, this secret weapon can be countered by the player base not giving a damn that the changes are happening, but that's a sign of a different issue.Mickey Finnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14025559890207412926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-56990459135109951022009-10-11T01:40:31.705-04:002009-10-11T01:40:31.705-04:00"Prop rot" ought not to come as a surpri..."Prop rot" ought not to come as a surprise to anybody. We saw this on AmberMUSH (and if you're on Shangrila, it has happened there also): how many times did we see people RP really hard and earn a big position or title...and then get bored, or get eaten by RL, and <i>not relinquish the position/prop/title so that somebody else could play</i>? I would say....every time. This happened to piddly little titles as well as to monarchs, and those people would disappear, or cloister themselves with a few friends only, and RP that required those positions would also come to a grinding halt, like an engine with all the oil drained out. <br /><br />The 'risk', as you note, is really the risk of losing what one has acquired or accomplished. So that is kept, status quo....and something greater is lost instead: spontaneity, mobility, dynamic energy. Props cannot change hands IC or OOC, usually by IC refusal to engage in "throne war", and OOC refusal to step down. It has happened on Shangrila: though the rules say there should be elections for the Dukedoms, there hasn't been one held in years. They have begun replacing their drop-outs by appointment, ensuring a closed "ruling" group and serious stagnation. It even happened on AM with staff, to the point that when people WANTED and OFFERED to take over the game and inject new life, the existing staff forbade it. You know what happened there...slow, inevitable stagnation and death. But that's just a larger version of what seems always to happen.<br /><br />I don't know how to fix it, except perhaps to require people who hold props/wizard positions/whatever to abdicate if they are absent too long - whatever too long means. But that would require a whole lot of staff oversight and would suck to manage.<br /><br />Maybe this is why MUSHes have an average lifespan of just a couple of years?Angelahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10191244133348870604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-51721371601676835432009-10-11T00:24:59.823-04:002009-10-11T00:24:59.823-04:00#10 has big implications for the role of secrecy i...#10 has big implications for the role of secrecy in tabletop play, let alone the larger-scale play you're talking about. But really, what you've done is talk about the 25% without talking about the 100%. I don't see you getting into why it's important to finish 100% -- instead, you just explain why you don't want to show more than 25% of it (at start).<br /><br />The answer for me is a bit self-evident too, but let's say it: sometimes the players want to run down that path you've forecast, and it's good to be ready for it. <br /><br />Also, it's sometimes hard to tell where exactly the 25% mark is. If you reveal 25% and that doesn't lead to them springing into action -- maybe there's more yet to be said on your part.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08362641974657304051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-30676457204642394432009-10-11T00:21:50.743-04:002009-10-11T00:21:50.743-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08362641974657304051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-58832670017250853262009-10-09T07:08:24.290-04:002009-10-09T07:08:24.290-04:00Really, in an ideal universe you need 1) a good wa...Really, in an ideal universe you need 1) a good way to model gain and 2) a reduced baseline for security. That is, if a prop is worth 100 whatever, you need a way for it to get bigger (and for that to mean something) but for that expansion to involve 9require) risk of some of that 100, albeit with some manner of backstop, so it can never drop below, say, 50.<br /><br />Easiest way to do that is to curve the difficulty, so it's EASY to make gains from 50 to 100, then gets steadily harder from there. All well and good, but it all hinges on an agree-dupon (or mechanically functional) sense of value. I think that's doable, but there are a few new tricks it would require. <br /><br />-Rob D.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-2208947510032664812009-10-08T18:46:00.242-04:002009-10-08T18:46:00.242-04:00On Prop Rot --
One of the big problems is that pe...On Prop Rot --<br /><br />One of the big problems is that people are afraid to put their prop (their resource) up to any sort of risk. Because a size of the resource has perceived "value" or "currency" and losing that prop or damaging that prop means losing value or currency. But it's unclear even from the inside what the value or currency of that prop really is so that there is fear that surrounds the risk. This is pretty common in security risk modeling because no one understands the risk or understands the value of their data so they do not make good judgements regarding what they have other than yelling "MINE."<br /><br />It becomes magnified and paralyzing when you have a group of people who are involved with that resource and they all have a certain amount of "play" as currency invested in that resource even if they are not the owner of that resource. They have a strong incentive to pressure the resource owner to not engage in risk-like behaviors because they perceive that if they are involved in a resource that is taking on risk their own characters and play -- which has high perceived value -- is now at risk as well.<br /><br />What you get is prop rot. No one will put anything up to risk, and even if there is risk, the risk is going to be pretty small. The social ramifications of the risk in the social society of the game has great pressures to disincentivize the use of the resource.<br /><br />My solution -- ensure anyone who has a prop has played Diplomacy and stayed in to the end -- is not popular. I don't have a good idea how to manage the perceived value vs. the risk on a MUSH when it comes to politically-focused props.Emilyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11069100225375930667noreply@blogger.com