rainbowsaurus [1884204] —
Original article
Duke; the lovable loan shark. Over the past few months, this man has had a growing presence in Torn. He began as nothing more than a threatening financier with a poor grasp of the English language, but he has since branched out into extortion, protection and mass deception. He's even bloomed into an aspiring poet, as we saw a few weeks ago in the forums.
Duke is no longer a simple NPC who only lends money and mugs you if you don't pay it back. Now he's posting forum threads, interacting with players and sowing the seeds of drama; something Chedburn has been known to enjoy. Just a few days ago Duke even launched a run for Torn President, and lord knows what would happen were he to win.
But this newfound ability of Torn's most popular NPC makes a few people uncomfortable, and some even feel individually targeted. It's clear that Duke has grown beyond the role of an ordinary NPC, but how does this new character fit into the Torn environment? Where should we, as citizen players, draw the line for NPCs and their actions; what consequences should there be if Duke crosses the line?
Let us first point out that Duke is specifically designed to be the type of person you love to hate. His brash and offensive attitude isn't meant to be endearing to anyone. In fact, he's supposed to be slightly aggressive to get a reaction from players and to seem like a real character in a crime city like Torn. Chedburn stated as much when he gave the following quote:
"Anything which evokes a reaction without seriously crossing misogynistic / racist / offensive lines (which Duke certainly doesn't), is awesome in my eyes, and it looks like that has been achieved. Duke is supposed to be dumb, slightly old-fashioned and accidentally (slightly) offensive without meaning to be. It's not like we the developers, or the creative writers are sexist: it's that we feel these kinds of people do exist in the world and most certainly exist in a city like Torn."
If Duke is merely a character, then the developers and creative writer(s) shouldn't be judged based on his actions, any more than you'd judge a movie writer for creating someone similar. Yet some people are requesting that whoever runs Duke's account come forward and take responsibility for his or her actions. How can NPCs, and even Torn lore, thrive when players want to strip them down to their basic human elements and deprive them of their ability to act?
One of the most famous targets of Duke's shenanigans in recent months was Wall_ST, who entered into a protection contract with him only for things to turn sour after just one month. Duke retaliated by harassing Wall_ST's Oil Rig crew, and in response, Wall_ST targeted the Torn authorities; offering a $1billion reward to whoever hospitalized staff and committee members the most, unless someone claimed responsibility for Duke's actions:
"If I go in the forums and scam a bunch of people would I not be held accountable if someone was angry about it? If I went mouthing off in global would I not be punished? I only see one person that no game mechanic exists to hold someone accountable. And that's Duke. If you piss off Duke what can you do to make him uncomfortable? Nothing. Unless you know who controls him."
Wall_ST's post was seen as drastic by other players who seemed to universally agree that targeting staff was a fruitless idea - especially when Duke began hitting staff himself. But Wall_ST raises an important point when he asks what he could possibly do to make Duke uncomfortable. What should Torn citizens do when NPCs cross the line?
To answer this, we must look at the purpose of Duke, as this may give us a hint as to where players can have some influence. In most other games, NPCs exist as a character not controlled by a player, but rather by a computer or neutral third party. They don't play to win the game. They don't have the same motivations or goals as players. Instead, they further a story line, add background information, give hints or prizes, or inject comedic relief.
Some games try to break this rigid NPC structure to give more color and life to their NPCs. For example, in one game, NPCs lie to players throughout the whole experience. The discovery of deception is a part of the game and what makes them more powerful, and many feel these NPCs are more real because they don't act in a static or expected way.
Lots of video games also use artificial intelligence to control their NPCs - but anyone who has sent a private message to Duke or read any of his forum posts would know he doesn't have an ounce of artificial or intelligence. He is authentically stupid, and this means that conversations with him feel more real than those with AI personalities like smarterchild from AOL, Siri, Alexa or Cortana.
Most computerized-service conversations and topics are calculated, but with Duke, you never know what you'll be told. His responses mostly depend on how drunk he is or what mood he's in - a feature which would certainly make Siri more interesting. Duke once wished me a "happy barfday" on my birthday, but the chances were equally likely of him threatening to whack my dead grandma instead. He is completely unpredictable.
Of course, Duke isn't run by AI; he is controlled by a human person or persons unknown. This is akin to the NPC role performed in a Tabletop RPG game by a moderator or GM. Dungeons and Dragons has a subcategory known as Pet NPCs, which refers to NPCs given favorable treatment for the sole amusement of the moderator. Naturally, this opens up the opportunity for abuse when a GM will bend the rules in its favor - often at the expense of other players - just to keep the NPC alive. This sounds familiar, as certain rules seem to be bent to give Duke his own money supply and pumped up stats; but does this example give us any insight in how to deal with a human-controlled NPC in Torn?
If Duke is meant to be seen as a character, not a player, then may we take advantage of him as we see fit? Can we scam, abuse, bully and bother him beyond what would be deemed acceptable if he was a normal person with non-edited stats? And on the flip side, can we use Duke as a character in a game, and play with him?
Many players believe Duke adds to the Torn experience positively already, and they have proven that his presence can be entertaining. JustJanet publically called Duke out in the forums requesting his book of poetry; a reference to a mission she had just completed. She had first tried sending Duke mail messages seeking the poetry book, but when she failed to receive a response, JustJanet tried a different tactic:
"I honestly didn't know if he would respond since he didn't to any of my past attempts, but it entertained me and that's the sort of post I enjoy most in the forums. The ones that attempt to immerse into the game a little bit more and just enjoy the moments that are uniquely Torn."
This was one of the more light-hearted contexts in which Duke has posted on the forums. JustJanet and I both agreed the quality of the poetry was sub-par, I give it a C+ at best. But nevertheless, it seems that Duke just can't resist when there's a chance for him to be the center of attention. I asked Duke directly if he would respond to anyone calling him out on the forums, and he replied as follows:
"Duke ain't squat in front of the computer all day waitin for you mooks to say my name, but Duke likes poems, what can I say? If you's peek my interest I'm gonna do somethin or say somethin dependin on how drunk I am."
During the Christmas season, we were able to get a glimpse into some of the things that "peek" Duke's interest when he was tasked with judging the Community Event submissions - an honor usually given to Chedburn. While Duke's selection criteria remained a mystery, the change in judge was probably for the best, as now the same people won't win all the competitions every year. Also, this decision allowed Duke to give descriptions and explanations for his choices, which were more flavorful and interesting than Chedburn would have been allowed to provide.
CatHead walked home with a gold ribbon for Best Christmas Costume and silver in the MS Paint Competition, and he believes it was because he has the same kind of humor as Duke. But while CatHead was pleased with this situation many others were not. Duke's unique style of judging brought about some upsets; not only did I not win the Christmas Carol competition, but HandsomePants also failed to take the Best Torn Meme award, despite receiving a whopping 200 upvotes for his meme.
I personally believe he should at least receive the champion honor bar for getting three times as many upvotes as the next best entrant in the meme competition and indeed all of the Christmas competitions. But then again, the arson pun may have been a bit too subtle and cerebral for a man of Duke's mental capacity. And it was a perfect opportunity for Duke to show once again that he makes his own decisions, and that he isn't afraid to go against the popular opinion.
He has proved as much during his own holiday-themed contests run via the forums; such as his New Year's resolution competition where winners were awarded a lease to live in his properties, only for each of them to be kicked out after 90 days. The most infamous Duke competition by far though was the Valentine's Day Charity Drive.
On this occasion, Duke asked for a depressing or pathetic Valentine's Day story. To make it a charity drive, he also asked for donations from others to help sick kids. Torn citizens ended up donating $1,288,985,672 to this cause. It is not known where this money ended up, so I asked him to clarify:
"That money went to real sick kids with a bent neck and broken livers and stuff. Oh, and some of it went to them folks what got scammed too, and a competition I think. And okay I bought one tiny private island with the change, but these kids only live for so long you know. They ain't need all that cash. That's just greedy."
Chedburn has made it clear that Duke may do as he pleases with this money. Because although he has the mouth of a sailor and the moral compass of a drunken pirate, these scams, contests, and poetry readings are relatively harmless. People chose to donate the money they lost. They chose to participate in the contests. They chose to accept Duke's offer for protection services.
But many never thought they would be individually singled out or publicly harassed by Duke for these choices. Is this where the line for NPCs should be? Has Duke crossed it yet? BodyBagger chose to mug Duke repeatedly and was given personal attention as a result. His employees and reputation were both considered fair game, and I wondered how this incident may have affected his company, BodyBaggers Oil:
"Initially, Duke contacted me about the mugs and threatened to perma-hosp my employees if the muggings didn't stop. I didn't think it was fair to retaliate in this manner since everyone had the same opportunity as me and it wasn't fair to my employees. As far as I was concerned, if the muggings weren't meant to be part of the game, the solution was to correct it, and obviously, I was right as usual, and the muggings were nerfed shortly after that. Unfortunately, I lost quite a few workers during that period, and consequently, it greatly affected company profits negatively for a while."
After requesting more information on the alleged nerfing of Duke's mug earnings, an anonymous Torn developer replied with the following:
"Duke just keeps his cash in his safe to stop BB taking advantage. We didn't want to nerf it, we wanted a creative solution to this problem. We think we found one. When BB takes the **** and mugs him every day we have to cut him and everyone off."
The BB / Duke feud has already been covered extensively in the Torn City Times, but it seems there may still be some lingering tension between these two kings of Torn. For now, BodyBagger claims to stay away from Duke except to help others with missions. Duke, on the other hand, has set a plan into motion:
"He [BodyBagger] still robs me cause he broke our agreement, but I did this real bad thing to him what he ain't know yet. So we're even. Until he finds out."
Are these empty words meant to intimidate, or are we going to see an explosive confrontation soon? A 500 million dollar bounty dog tag and constant beatings on BodyBagger's employees haven't driven him from the game yet. In fact, BodyBagger even thinks Duke could be good for the game, in the right circumstances.
"I do think that his interaction with Torn has added to the overall experience of Torn, but I think that Duke should stay away from actions which affect unfairly one person in the game. I think his actions should affect everyone in the same manner. If you take WALL_St for example, I don't think that seeking him out and screwing him over is fair. The decisions and outcomes that have occurred with his company may not have been the best, but they would have never occurred if Duke hadn't pursued him in the first place."
Still, it must be said that initially at least, Duke did pursue WALL_St with an offer of protection. His intention was to set up a deal where, in return for a share of WALL_St's profits, Duke would defend his workers, pressure others to work for WALL_St Oil, or rough up other oil rigs. Other oil rigs like the one run by BodyBagger. Duke claims this was initially a positive move to help another player, and if one player can benefit from an NPC's help, surely it's right that there are risks involved to balance it out for everyone else?
His deal with WALL_St eventually flopped. Duke thought that WALL_St was too demanding. WALL_St thought Duke's services weren't worth the 10% of profits he was paying. As a parting gift, Duke whacked him, and his wife, and his rig, and his faction, and his dead grandma too. He also claims WALL_St got a good protection deal, which he's still willing to offer. So perhaps there's still a chance for a happy ending.
The parting gift may have been a touch too much, though, and now WALL_St is out for blood. He's not a doormat and doesn't let anyone walk all over him. His billion-dollar bounty and staff attacks may have been fruitless, but he is using Torn's revenge mechanics (attacking and bounties) to seek revenge as he would if it were any other player.
The main issue here is that Duke is not another player, and by that, I mean someone with another account with another name (multies aren't allowed in this game!). So the real solution, as we've said earlier, would be to deal with Duke directly; to get under his skin.
Dealing with NPC attention is something all players should be thinking about because with new NPCs on the horizon, this situation can and will happen again. In a game based on drugs and crimes, we should hardly be surprised at being attacked or singled out by a loan shark character. And what's more, is that we've been in this situation already once before.
When missions were first released, many were shocked that players could be the target of specific missions. But now that missions have been out a while, it has become normalized to be on someone's mission list and therefore normalized to be attacked because of orders from an NPC.
Protip: this makes it very easy to get away with attacking someone and blaming it on a mission.
Also, with scamming now legal for players, why shouldn't it be okay for an NPC to do the same? There should be a line drawn on scamming somewhere; e.g. staff who help players in the game certainly shouldn't involve themselves in such activities. But Duke isn't here to help; he's here to entertain. His character doesn't require that he treat everyone equally and with respect. This may be expected of George as the beginner players' NPC, and perhaps Amanda and Leslie might also prove more trustworthy. But for Duke, an honest approach just doesn't make sense.
Instead of lumping our expectations of Duke together with those we have for staff, devs, and committee members, or even our expectations of players, we need to create another category for this new form of NPC. I suggest unPC, both because he is nowhere near politically correct, but he's not quite an NPC. (It is up to you what unPC as an acronym stands for: Unfortunately naive player character. Unusual non-player character. Ugly, Nasty, Pathetic, C***. Whatever floats your boat.)
Duke may seem alone in his unPC category, but when other mission leaders and NPCs are released, they will likely give Duke a run for his money. The spring newsletter announced that we will soon be able to loot NPCs for unique weapons. This new release will almost certainly spark new personalities that come alive just as much as Duke, and with them, we'll enjoy a whole new range of interactions with Torn-appropriate characters.
If Duke's character was created as if he were a real person living in Torn, what might other residents of this city be like? Any new unPCs will likely have backstories about how they also fit into the Torn environment. And Duke's niche as brash tough-guy is already taken, so the other characters need to flesh out different roles. For example, a Walter White chemist with nothing to lose might need help acquiring ingredients or fending off the cops; and instead of mission credits, he rewards you with drugs. This person could be the brains to counterbalance Duke's muscle - if Amanda isn't going to fulfil that role already.
In a different direction, it would be intense to have to interact with a mother who lost her child during a dirty bomb attack and have missions center around finding clues, following the breadcrumbs to find out where her baby has gone. These stories could even cross over throughout the missions; mug someone for Duke, give the money to the chemist, he shares a clue about the lost baby.
We haven't yet seen the full possibility of what these unPCs can do and where they'll take us, and nor, according to Chedburn, have we seen the true extent of Duke's shenanigans either:
"The players determine what Duke becomes. Duke will serve a particular role, just as all future NPCs will."
Those who do choose to interact with Duke, whether through sending him messages, disliking his forum posts, or joining in on group attacks, should expect him to respond in kind. Cut off that interaction, and he'll likely leave you alone. But escalate it, and he'll do the same. He is a living, breathing unPC who answers only to himself. A special snowflake with the agency and freedom to chose who he punishes, and who he pleasures.
If players truly do determine his actions, be vocal about when you feel he's crossed the line. And if you do choose to interact with him, take every word he says with a grain of salt unless you don't mind a taking few bounties and giving public apologies for the rest of your days.
Wall_ST and Bodybagger so kindly volunteered to expose the intensity of a feud with Duke, but when these two were on the brink, it seems Duke knew when to let up - neither have had an interaction of note with him lately, so perhaps there is some restraint behind this unPC after all. And, if it ever does go too far, maybe Duke can give out a safe word or phrase for players to use, so he knows when players just can't handle any more attention.
I suggest "rainbowsaurus is better than Duke."
Duke is no longer a simple NPC who only lends money and mugs you if you don't pay it back. Now he's posting forum threads, interacting with players and sowing the seeds of drama; something Chedburn has been known to enjoy. Just a few days ago Duke even launched a run for Torn President, and lord knows what would happen were he to win.
But this newfound ability of Torn's most popular NPC makes a few people uncomfortable, and some even feel individually targeted. It's clear that Duke has grown beyond the role of an ordinary NPC, but how does this new character fit into the Torn environment? Where should we, as citizen players, draw the line for NPCs and their actions; what consequences should there be if Duke crosses the line?
Let us first point out that Duke is specifically designed to be the type of person you love to hate. His brash and offensive attitude isn't meant to be endearing to anyone. In fact, he's supposed to be slightly aggressive to get a reaction from players and to seem like a real character in a crime city like Torn. Chedburn stated as much when he gave the following quote:
"Anything which evokes a reaction without seriously crossing misogynistic / racist / offensive lines (which Duke certainly doesn't), is awesome in my eyes, and it looks like that has been achieved. Duke is supposed to be dumb, slightly old-fashioned and accidentally (slightly) offensive without meaning to be. It's not like we the developers, or the creative writers are sexist: it's that we feel these kinds of people do exist in the world and most certainly exist in a city like Torn."
If Duke is merely a character, then the developers and creative writer(s) shouldn't be judged based on his actions, any more than you'd judge a movie writer for creating someone similar. Yet some people are requesting that whoever runs Duke's account come forward and take responsibility for his or her actions. How can NPCs, and even Torn lore, thrive when players want to strip them down to their basic human elements and deprive them of their ability to act?
One of the most famous targets of Duke's shenanigans in recent months was Wall_ST, who entered into a protection contract with him only for things to turn sour after just one month. Duke retaliated by harassing Wall_ST's Oil Rig crew, and in response, Wall_ST targeted the Torn authorities; offering a $1billion reward to whoever hospitalized staff and committee members the most, unless someone claimed responsibility for Duke's actions:
"If I go in the forums and scam a bunch of people would I not be held accountable if someone was angry about it? If I went mouthing off in global would I not be punished? I only see one person that no game mechanic exists to hold someone accountable. And that's Duke. If you piss off Duke what can you do to make him uncomfortable? Nothing. Unless you know who controls him."
Wall_ST's post was seen as drastic by other players who seemed to universally agree that targeting staff was a fruitless idea - especially when Duke began hitting staff himself. But Wall_ST raises an important point when he asks what he could possibly do to make Duke uncomfortable. What should Torn citizens do when NPCs cross the line?
To answer this, we must look at the purpose of Duke, as this may give us a hint as to where players can have some influence. In most other games, NPCs exist as a character not controlled by a player, but rather by a computer or neutral third party. They don't play to win the game. They don't have the same motivations or goals as players. Instead, they further a story line, add background information, give hints or prizes, or inject comedic relief.
Some games try to break this rigid NPC structure to give more color and life to their NPCs. For example, in one game, NPCs lie to players throughout the whole experience. The discovery of deception is a part of the game and what makes them more powerful, and many feel these NPCs are more real because they don't act in a static or expected way.
Lots of video games also use artificial intelligence to control their NPCs - but anyone who has sent a private message to Duke or read any of his forum posts would know he doesn't have an ounce of artificial or intelligence. He is authentically stupid, and this means that conversations with him feel more real than those with AI personalities like smarterchild from AOL, Siri, Alexa or Cortana.
Most computerized-service conversations and topics are calculated, but with Duke, you never know what you'll be told. His responses mostly depend on how drunk he is or what mood he's in - a feature which would certainly make Siri more interesting. Duke once wished me a "happy barfday" on my birthday, but the chances were equally likely of him threatening to whack my dead grandma instead. He is completely unpredictable.
Of course, Duke isn't run by AI; he is controlled by a human person or persons unknown. This is akin to the NPC role performed in a Tabletop RPG game by a moderator or GM. Dungeons and Dragons has a subcategory known as Pet NPCs, which refers to NPCs given favorable treatment for the sole amusement of the moderator. Naturally, this opens up the opportunity for abuse when a GM will bend the rules in its favor - often at the expense of other players - just to keep the NPC alive. This sounds familiar, as certain rules seem to be bent to give Duke his own money supply and pumped up stats; but does this example give us any insight in how to deal with a human-controlled NPC in Torn?
If Duke is meant to be seen as a character, not a player, then may we take advantage of him as we see fit? Can we scam, abuse, bully and bother him beyond what would be deemed acceptable if he was a normal person with non-edited stats? And on the flip side, can we use Duke as a character in a game, and play with him?
Many players believe Duke adds to the Torn experience positively already, and they have proven that his presence can be entertaining. JustJanet publically called Duke out in the forums requesting his book of poetry; a reference to a mission she had just completed. She had first tried sending Duke mail messages seeking the poetry book, but when she failed to receive a response, JustJanet tried a different tactic:
"I honestly didn't know if he would respond since he didn't to any of my past attempts, but it entertained me and that's the sort of post I enjoy most in the forums. The ones that attempt to immerse into the game a little bit more and just enjoy the moments that are uniquely Torn."
This was one of the more light-hearted contexts in which Duke has posted on the forums. JustJanet and I both agreed the quality of the poetry was sub-par, I give it a C+ at best. But nevertheless, it seems that Duke just can't resist when there's a chance for him to be the center of attention. I asked Duke directly if he would respond to anyone calling him out on the forums, and he replied as follows:
"Duke ain't squat in front of the computer all day waitin for you mooks to say my name, but Duke likes poems, what can I say? If you's peek my interest I'm gonna do somethin or say somethin dependin on how drunk I am."
During the Christmas season, we were able to get a glimpse into some of the things that "peek" Duke's interest when he was tasked with judging the Community Event submissions - an honor usually given to Chedburn. While Duke's selection criteria remained a mystery, the change in judge was probably for the best, as now the same people won't win all the competitions every year. Also, this decision allowed Duke to give descriptions and explanations for his choices, which were more flavorful and interesting than Chedburn would have been allowed to provide.
CatHead walked home with a gold ribbon for Best Christmas Costume and silver in the MS Paint Competition, and he believes it was because he has the same kind of humor as Duke. But while CatHead was pleased with this situation many others were not. Duke's unique style of judging brought about some upsets; not only did I not win the Christmas Carol competition, but HandsomePants also failed to take the Best Torn Meme award, despite receiving a whopping 200 upvotes for his meme.
I personally believe he should at least receive the champion honor bar for getting three times as many upvotes as the next best entrant in the meme competition and indeed all of the Christmas competitions. But then again, the arson pun may have been a bit too subtle and cerebral for a man of Duke's mental capacity. And it was a perfect opportunity for Duke to show once again that he makes his own decisions, and that he isn't afraid to go against the popular opinion.
He has proved as much during his own holiday-themed contests run via the forums; such as his New Year's resolution competition where winners were awarded a lease to live in his properties, only for each of them to be kicked out after 90 days. The most infamous Duke competition by far though was the Valentine's Day Charity Drive.
On this occasion, Duke asked for a depressing or pathetic Valentine's Day story. To make it a charity drive, he also asked for donations from others to help sick kids. Torn citizens ended up donating $1,288,985,672 to this cause. It is not known where this money ended up, so I asked him to clarify:
"That money went to real sick kids with a bent neck and broken livers and stuff. Oh, and some of it went to them folks what got scammed too, and a competition I think. And okay I bought one tiny private island with the change, but these kids only live for so long you know. They ain't need all that cash. That's just greedy."
Chedburn has made it clear that Duke may do as he pleases with this money. Because although he has the mouth of a sailor and the moral compass of a drunken pirate, these scams, contests, and poetry readings are relatively harmless. People chose to donate the money they lost. They chose to participate in the contests. They chose to accept Duke's offer for protection services.
But many never thought they would be individually singled out or publicly harassed by Duke for these choices. Is this where the line for NPCs should be? Has Duke crossed it yet? BodyBagger chose to mug Duke repeatedly and was given personal attention as a result. His employees and reputation were both considered fair game, and I wondered how this incident may have affected his company, BodyBaggers Oil:
"Initially, Duke contacted me about the mugs and threatened to perma-hosp my employees if the muggings didn't stop. I didn't think it was fair to retaliate in this manner since everyone had the same opportunity as me and it wasn't fair to my employees. As far as I was concerned, if the muggings weren't meant to be part of the game, the solution was to correct it, and obviously, I was right as usual, and the muggings were nerfed shortly after that. Unfortunately, I lost quite a few workers during that period, and consequently, it greatly affected company profits negatively for a while."
After requesting more information on the alleged nerfing of Duke's mug earnings, an anonymous Torn developer replied with the following:
"Duke just keeps his cash in his safe to stop BB taking advantage. We didn't want to nerf it, we wanted a creative solution to this problem. We think we found one. When BB takes the **** and mugs him every day we have to cut him and everyone off."
The BB / Duke feud has already been covered extensively in the Torn City Times, but it seems there may still be some lingering tension between these two kings of Torn. For now, BodyBagger claims to stay away from Duke except to help others with missions. Duke, on the other hand, has set a plan into motion:
"He [BodyBagger] still robs me cause he broke our agreement, but I did this real bad thing to him what he ain't know yet. So we're even. Until he finds out."
Are these empty words meant to intimidate, or are we going to see an explosive confrontation soon? A 500 million dollar bounty dog tag and constant beatings on BodyBagger's employees haven't driven him from the game yet. In fact, BodyBagger even thinks Duke could be good for the game, in the right circumstances.
"I do think that his interaction with Torn has added to the overall experience of Torn, but I think that Duke should stay away from actions which affect unfairly one person in the game. I think his actions should affect everyone in the same manner. If you take WALL_St for example, I don't think that seeking him out and screwing him over is fair. The decisions and outcomes that have occurred with his company may not have been the best, but they would have never occurred if Duke hadn't pursued him in the first place."
Still, it must be said that initially at least, Duke did pursue WALL_St with an offer of protection. His intention was to set up a deal where, in return for a share of WALL_St's profits, Duke would defend his workers, pressure others to work for WALL_St Oil, or rough up other oil rigs. Other oil rigs like the one run by BodyBagger. Duke claims this was initially a positive move to help another player, and if one player can benefit from an NPC's help, surely it's right that there are risks involved to balance it out for everyone else?
His deal with WALL_St eventually flopped. Duke thought that WALL_St was too demanding. WALL_St thought Duke's services weren't worth the 10% of profits he was paying. As a parting gift, Duke whacked him, and his wife, and his rig, and his faction, and his dead grandma too. He also claims WALL_St got a good protection deal, which he's still willing to offer. So perhaps there's still a chance for a happy ending.
The parting gift may have been a touch too much, though, and now WALL_St is out for blood. He's not a doormat and doesn't let anyone walk all over him. His billion-dollar bounty and staff attacks may have been fruitless, but he is using Torn's revenge mechanics (attacking and bounties) to seek revenge as he would if it were any other player.
The main issue here is that Duke is not another player, and by that, I mean someone with another account with another name (multies aren't allowed in this game!). So the real solution, as we've said earlier, would be to deal with Duke directly; to get under his skin.
Dealing with NPC attention is something all players should be thinking about because with new NPCs on the horizon, this situation can and will happen again. In a game based on drugs and crimes, we should hardly be surprised at being attacked or singled out by a loan shark character. And what's more, is that we've been in this situation already once before.
When missions were first released, many were shocked that players could be the target of specific missions. But now that missions have been out a while, it has become normalized to be on someone's mission list and therefore normalized to be attacked because of orders from an NPC.
Protip: this makes it very easy to get away with attacking someone and blaming it on a mission.
Also, with scamming now legal for players, why shouldn't it be okay for an NPC to do the same? There should be a line drawn on scamming somewhere; e.g. staff who help players in the game certainly shouldn't involve themselves in such activities. But Duke isn't here to help; he's here to entertain. His character doesn't require that he treat everyone equally and with respect. This may be expected of George as the beginner players' NPC, and perhaps Amanda and Leslie might also prove more trustworthy. But for Duke, an honest approach just doesn't make sense.
Instead of lumping our expectations of Duke together with those we have for staff, devs, and committee members, or even our expectations of players, we need to create another category for this new form of NPC. I suggest unPC, both because he is nowhere near politically correct, but he's not quite an NPC. (It is up to you what unPC as an acronym stands for: Unfortunately naive player character. Unusual non-player character. Ugly, Nasty, Pathetic, C***. Whatever floats your boat.)
Duke may seem alone in his unPC category, but when other mission leaders and NPCs are released, they will likely give Duke a run for his money. The spring newsletter announced that we will soon be able to loot NPCs for unique weapons. This new release will almost certainly spark new personalities that come alive just as much as Duke, and with them, we'll enjoy a whole new range of interactions with Torn-appropriate characters.
If Duke's character was created as if he were a real person living in Torn, what might other residents of this city be like? Any new unPCs will likely have backstories about how they also fit into the Torn environment. And Duke's niche as brash tough-guy is already taken, so the other characters need to flesh out different roles. For example, a Walter White chemist with nothing to lose might need help acquiring ingredients or fending off the cops; and instead of mission credits, he rewards you with drugs. This person could be the brains to counterbalance Duke's muscle - if Amanda isn't going to fulfil that role already.
In a different direction, it would be intense to have to interact with a mother who lost her child during a dirty bomb attack and have missions center around finding clues, following the breadcrumbs to find out where her baby has gone. These stories could even cross over throughout the missions; mug someone for Duke, give the money to the chemist, he shares a clue about the lost baby.
We haven't yet seen the full possibility of what these unPCs can do and where they'll take us, and nor, according to Chedburn, have we seen the true extent of Duke's shenanigans either:
"The players determine what Duke becomes. Duke will serve a particular role, just as all future NPCs will."
Those who do choose to interact with Duke, whether through sending him messages, disliking his forum posts, or joining in on group attacks, should expect him to respond in kind. Cut off that interaction, and he'll likely leave you alone. But escalate it, and he'll do the same. He is a living, breathing unPC who answers only to himself. A special snowflake with the agency and freedom to chose who he punishes, and who he pleasures.
If players truly do determine his actions, be vocal about when you feel he's crossed the line. And if you do choose to interact with him, take every word he says with a grain of salt unless you don't mind a taking few bounties and giving public apologies for the rest of your days.
Wall_ST and Bodybagger so kindly volunteered to expose the intensity of a feud with Duke, but when these two were on the brink, it seems Duke knew when to let up - neither have had an interaction of note with him lately, so perhaps there is some restraint behind this unPC after all. And, if it ever does go too far, maybe Duke can give out a safe word or phrase for players to use, so he knows when players just can't handle any more attention.
I suggest "rainbowsaurus is better than Duke."
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