Tue, Jun 14, 2005 at 01:47:01AM -0700 in <42AE9985.6010009@indiegamedesign.com>,
Brandon J. Van Every <vanevery@indiegamedesign.com> spake:
I had thought of ripping off Picasso or Giaccometti. Make all humans
unrealistic. Go back to all the various tribal masks. Various cultures
have specific functions for their masks. Some visiting artist talked
about some group in West Africa, I forget which one. They had 3 masks:
an animal, a woman, or a grotesque. I remember the function of a
'woman' mask was to not scare children, so that they could become
educated about the masks. Can't remember more. Perhaps the idea of
"there's only 3 roles for anyone who comes here" is a good
simplification to make.
That's already done with humans in MMORPGs and combat-oriented MUDs.
They call the masks "classes" ("races" only determine how easy each
class's job is to perform), and your job in a party is determined by
your class. People who don't correctly fill their job of tank ("keep
the monster's attention and get hit"), puller ("find monsters, plink
them with arrows, then bring them back to our ambush"), healer, dd
("damage dealer", whether physical or magical), or debuffer ("lower the
monster's defenses") are lectured about their duties and then ostracized
if they can't conform.
Doing your job badly will result in yourself and others "dying" and
having to waste 10-15 minutes getting back into play, so there's a vital
community purpose served by the harsh reactions bad play gets.