Re: Violence in games


Mon, 6 Nov 1995 18:06:33 GMT

Julian Arnold (jools@arnod.demon.co.uk) wrote:
: All this being said, I think the best reason for not allowing arbitrary
: killing of NPCs is to preserve the plot.

Personally, I like letting players kill off NPC's, but adding the side
effect of having the player killed as well. "PTF" takes this approach.
It's possible to kill any of your fellow townspeople, but their screams
alert one of the others, who will immediately kill you.

Some may argue that this is only slightly better than a standard default
message, but my guess is that these are the same players who would become
irate if I simply allowed them to walk away from their murder and then
become permanently stuck in the game when they realize they need the
assistance of the character they just killed.

In any case, allowing players to kill and immediately be killed is another
method of plot preservation, but I think the choice between the two is
best left up to the author, based on his/her own perception of the main
character.

--
C.E. Forman                                      ceforma@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu
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