Game Design Philosophy: Lockpicks?
Around the beginning of the year, I became involved with Lithmeria, first as a builder, then, eventually as the head of building and one of the lead developers (of which there are currently two; Selkrener is the head coder and top boss. We also have a small staff.). To give some background, Lithmeria is a MUD
In online gaming, a MUD (multi-user dungeon), pronounced /mʌd/, is a multi-user real-time virtual world described entirely in text. It combines elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, interactive fiction, and online chat. Players can read descriptions of rooms, objects, other players, non-player characters, and actions performed in the virtual world. Players interact with each other and the world by typing commands that resemble a natural language.
-- Wikipedia
with a high fantasy setting. There are two factions, which are engaged in an on-going, long-term conflict, that players will be able to be part of. Characters can be one of eight classes, two of which are based on the rogue archetype (one for each side of the conflict). As developers, Selkrener and I encourage discussion on the forums about what potential players want to see in the game. One of the threads on the forums is the Skill Ideas and Suggestions topic, and a discussion about locks and lockpicking came up. We were presented with simple question with complex underpinning: Should rogues be able to pick locks?
There are a couple of issues with implicit in the question: