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When Hinting Crosses The Line

To hint or not to hint- that isn't really the question. Truth be told it's nearly impossible not to either hint or advance without getting hinted. According to a strict reading of the rules, there are some quests that require cheating, in fact. But an idle comment in the main pub, a gentle nudge to a confounded newbie, these aren't really what I'm here to talk about. I'm talking about cheating.

It's out there, you know. A truly magical book of secrets highlighting the solutions to nearly every quest on the mud. In fact there are several of them- who doesn't end up writing down a lot of things when working on a tough quest? And who would throw such documents away? These things get compiled, maybe sent to a friend who's just thinking of joining DR, and then like the commercial says, they'll tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on...

So what do you do when you're faced with the knowledge and power you could get from such a thing? Ignore it? Forget about it? Easier said then done. Who doesn't want to go up fast? To get more powerful? I know I wanted to too. I saw the stack of print -outs, and I have to say I looked. I glanced. I perused. Because you want to know- what does Ariadne want? What do I do with the Dragon Orb? Where do I look for the crown?

There are as many reasons to look as their are players. Some are interested mainly in the hack-n-slash aspects of the mud. Some just need a clue to get them going. Some want to know how all those stories are supposed to turn out.

In the end I gave it back. What's the point of the puzzle if you're given the answer- why do the questif you know the solution- why fight the battle if you know you can't lose?

It's been slow going, that's for sure, and worse, my glacial progress still remains too frequently indebted to off hand comments at Tika's, or cast off equipment from a high level player. It seems that that is sort of progress is at least off-white, if not grey- and doesn't that mean it's the on the same path as the scandalous solve sheets, just not as far down? I can't quite say exactly where the line gets drawn, only that it does- I guess it's different for everyone. I'm happy with where I draw it, but a lot of people wouldn't be.

The puzzles, the quests, and the challenges- we all have to decide where we stand in relation to them. Good luck figuring out where you belong.

--Arnd