[DGD] Mudlibs

[Stephen Schmidt]

On Fri, 24 Aug 2001, Par Winzell wrote:
> May I suggest the standard route of acquiring a developer account
> on an existing LPMud? Typically this is 'wizard' status, and it is
> often gained simply by playing.

DGD-relevant question: Is that even possible under DGD? Are
there any DGD-based muds open to the public which promote
their own players to wizard rank?

Not-necessarily-DGD-relevant comment: The notion of promoting
players to wizard after they make level X, so common in the
Elder Days, is all but dead in my (admittedly quite limited)
experience. It was probably a bad policy to start with, and
the surprise is that it lasted so long as it did. Perhaps it
worked better back in the days when most mudders were also
computer programmers than it does now. Its flaws include:

1) There is little correlation between having the skills required
to make level X and the skills required to be a productive wizard.
The only major overlap is that both require lots of free time and
a willingness to spend it in front of a CRT. In particular, reaching
level X requires no coding ability at all, and coding ability,
even untrained, is rare enough in the general population that
most players who make level X don't have it.

2) Automatic promotion to wizard produces more candidate new
wizards that most muds, in this day of small and understaffed
muds, can absorb at once.

3) In these days of mud-in-a-box, someone who really wants to
be a wizard (and that's one of the praimary requirements) can
usually pop open their own mud-in-a-box without investing the
effort required to make level X at an open mud - a level usually
set at an incredibly high level to choke off the flood of candidates
created by 2).

The compromise I'm familiar with is to permit players who reach
level X to apply to be wizards, applications being judged by the
admins. But this has most of the disadvantages of fraternity
rush - who you know and outward conformity become the most
important parts of selection - and also produces more applications
than most admins care to deal with, particularly if they're
trying to weed out those who can't code or have limited
teamwork skills.

> The benefit of starting with small managable 'toy' projects, going
> up to custom-effect armours and weapons, to large, inter-connected
> areas of rooms and objects, cannot be over-stated.

With this I completely concur. Unfortunately it's getting
harder and harder to find the chance.

I persist in thinking that what is needed is a small public
school that would have examples to work from, a small staff
to answer questions and help fix mistakes, and a certificiation
program that would let a prospective wizard approach an open
mud and say "I have finished Grade N at the Mud School" which
would let admins take him on without taking up the time required
to evaluate his skills. But earlier attempts to do this, my
own included, have generally failed due to an inability to
locate committed staff, and a lack of mud admins seeking to
hire the finished product (mud in a box being mostly the
reason for the latter, I think).

That said, I would be interested in contributing to the
development of examples for newbie wizards to work from,
if an open-access site to host them could be found (and if
the difficult problem of choosing a mudlib could be solved).

Steve

Sweet words can buy honor
Good deeds can gain respect
If a man is bad, do not abandon him.
	- Tao Te Ching, chapter sixty-two





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