An honor code is a set of rules voluntarily accepted by participants to a certain game. These rules are not enforced by the game, either because of design flaws, or because it is too difficult to do so without damaging the rest of the game. What are the ways to favor the appearance of an honor code amongst the players, and what are the benefits of having it? My favorite example: Thief: generally I play games at medium difficulty, because easy is silly easy and hard is ridiculously hard. However in Thief I always play on expert mode, and I do that almost since I started the game. Why? The game really gives that "I''m a master thief" feeling. Sneaking where I shouldn''t be, getting in and out without anyone noticing more than a few strange noises. It''s a special case of an honor code. The expert thief isn''t heard. The expert thief doesn''t leave a mess behind. The expert thief always likes challenges. The game hints explicitly at this code, and the different difficulty levels support it. As a result, the expert difficulty mode doesn''t have that three times as many monsters half the ammo feeling. But it gets better: the simulation in Thief is quite buggy: I can go around a house banging the heads of every single guard in there and leave on the front door leaving twenty passed out guards inside. Well, an expert thief would always try to stay unheard, so the honor code commands me to stop banging guards even if I do get a chance to. The same honor code says that a master thief doesn''t need savegames (but in order to enjoy the game cheat codes for the next level are needed here - playing without savegames would mean playing the same level over and over again - not fun). There, the honor code makes the player fix himself some design flaws. Also, the honor code of Thief keeps the player from finding the bugs in the AI - a thief must not catch the attention of the guards, laugh at their stupidity and kill them, the thief must let the guards move on their scripted predefined paths without even noticing.

This reminds me of when a friend of mine playing Thief crept up behind a guard and threw a large crate at him. The crate hit the guard squarely on the back of the head and bounced off. The reaction from the guard? "Uh? Is somebody there?" And he walked off.

I dunno... I think players will come up with whatever they want to for these things. Ensuring that your game allows the players to be versatile (ie. can reach a given goal by more than 1 means) gives them scope for such ''honor codes'' as it gives them leeway with how they play the game.

Let me see if I understand what you''re stating.
So, to change the difficulty of the game, instead of making monsters tougher, limit the interaction with the game that the player''s allowed. Like, on harder difficlties, you''re no longer allowed to incapacitate guards. And that we could then summerize the rationale of those changes as a sort of honor system.

So, perhaps, in an RPG, on a higher difficulty level, you''re not able to take items out of people''s houses. "A true paladin does not steal."

That about what you meant?

No, what I meant was that because I bought that Master Thief "I''m invisible" attitude Looking Glass sold so well (The best thief the world has never seen.), the game had a lot to win: increased difficulty that didn''t seem unnatural, unexposed AI bugs, etc.

It would be very hard to do the same thing with the paladin example (at least for me), because I don''t think Paladins are that cool that I wanted to be one. If I chose a Paladin, I do because they are fighters and have healing spells, not because they''re religious. What worked for Thief is unlikely to work for another game exactly the same way.

As for how can such an honor system appear, I agree with Kylotan: more ways to acomplish the job, then let the players choose.