Just to add my 2 coppers.
I've been mudding since Diku's first came to the states, so I've seen muds
grow up for quite a while. Twinking has always existed and always will.
For the most part most people dislike it because, like you say, jealousy.
But, there's also some very detrimental effects to twinking.
1) Lazy players - Although it might seem 'nice' to give that barbed leather
whip you just upgraded, to a lower level character, this slowly tends to
breed a dependance & you'll start to see an increase of item/cash beggers.
You also see this occur ALOT with information, slowly as people's questions
are answered with shouts, they tend to become less & less likely to explore
and learn for themselves. Soon you have a spam-load of questions going back
& forth & lots of people shouting RTFM. The preferable method I've found
for items to newbies, is more to play secret santa... Upgraded that whip &
don't feel like dealing with the hassle of selling it? Go give it to a
beetle in the commons, then invis & watch the glee of the newbie who finds
it. The difference here is that they assume the game is giving them an
ultra rare (which is should do IMHO) instead of a player giving them
something.
2) Respect for the game - This one's VERY hard to put a finger on, but with
most muds there's a definite learning curve that one must follow to succeed
in the game. By twinking a character you sufficiently flatten out that
curve & as a result new characters will circumvent the "babtism by fire"
that seasoned players had to go through. An often forgotten about portion
of the game, is that whole character building process that you have to go
through. Again, in general, what I've seen is people who are twinked tend
to not 'love' & respect the game like those of us that have gone down that
hard path, they're usually more likely to exploit bugs, and not give a rat's
arse about the 'big picture' of the game. Unfortunately, The only way for
people to learn this love/respect of the game is to go through it
themselves.
Token Disclaimer:
These are pretty extreme overall generalities, please don't infer that I'm
calling you the anti-christ of eq for giving that whip to your buddy because
you want to give him a leg up. In addition there's an extreme difference
between twinking a newbie who hasn't learned the game yet, and twinking a
secondary character who's already learned that respect for the game I
mentioned. (Level 1-10 for almost all characters is ABOUT the same, but
then again most people who have played the game alot can burn through the
1st ten levels in under 2 days /played, untwinked)
-----Original Message-----
From: Kyle Q <
kquinby@...>
To:
eqbards@onelist.com <
eqbards@onelist.com>
Date: Thursday, July 22, 1999 10:56 AM
Subject: Re: [eqbards] Blackened Iron Armor *SPOILER* (sort of)
>From: "Kyle Q" <kquinby@...>
>
>Sorry, I just had to reply to this, and then I'll let the subject drop
>forever. Enough has been said about twinking. I have to say, you have to be
>a real jerk to give somebody flak because they are twinked. This is called
>JEALOUSY folks. Get over it.
>
>
>>IMHO someone totally ruined the game for this guy, and he will never even
>>know it. Not only has the thrill of the loot been taken from him, among
>>other things, *but other players will make his life a hard one because he
>is
>>twinked.*
>>
>>-Treehugger and Songmaker
>>
>>
>>
>>
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