[MUD-Dev] META: FAQ and Thread Summaries

[coder at ibm.net]

On 03/12/97 at 08:26 PM, "Brandon J. Rickman" <ashes at pc4.zennet.com> said:
>On Wed, 3 Dec 1997, Adam Wiggins <nightfall at user1.inficad.com> wrote:
>>[coder at ibm.net:]
>>> Deduced reasons:  Partly it is as trivial as vocabulary (we have evolved
>>> our own terminology and connotation frame), partly it is reference frame
>>
>>People are getting confused by constant references to Bubba? :)

>Making common vocabulary and references clearer would be useful, but
>might lead to heated discussion of "What is a spoof?" and "Could the
>Great God GooGoo create a rock so big he couldn't life it?"

FWLIW The discussion of spoofs, watchers, affects, and Affects, their base
scenarios, and limits occupied a few thousand messages in the early days
of the CC list.

>Here is the kind of information I would be interested in sharing, is this
>too much, too vague?  Should I just put it all in my .sig?

>[my secret agenda -- SPOILER!]
>Brandon Rickman - currently a graduate student, University of California
>Los Angeles, department of design. ashes at zennet.com

>Favorite characters: Shoehorn, Motch
>Favorite scenarios:
>- [Shoehorn and the rabbits]
>Favorite concepts:
>- Big Universe: a game world so large all the characters would be unable
>to cumulatively explore it in less than ten days.
>- randomness versus indeterminacy
>- storytelling should be concerned with what the player is interested in,
>not with simulation.
>- decaying details

>more info: http://...
>[end of my secret agenda]

Quite.  I like the idea of collecting such self-written bios for the list. 
For myself I'd stray to something more like:

--<cut>--
J C Lawrence, "Chris", "ChrisL" -- contract programmer, MUD-Dev list
owner. Addresses: coder at ibm.net, claw at null.net, and various client
specific addresses. Key tems:  
  Bubba, Boffo, Bernie, Biff, etc:  Archetypal MUD playuers or NPCs used
in scenarios.
  Spoofs: (definition)
  Watchers:(definition)
  GoP: (definition)
  ...etc
Key concepts:  
  Not interested in RP.  Goal oriented games are possible with free user
programming.  Proponent of disk based servers as versus in-memory.  Heavy
proponent of hands-off administration and game systems designed to
obfuscate standard administration/social game problems by side-effect. 
Proponent of persistant worlds (no resets or repops EVER), level-less
skill-based systems, total logical seperation of body and character.
body-stealing, single character controlling multiple simultaneous bodies,
account/ID/character logins, data-base-style persistant stores with
rollbacks for time travel, nested command lines, etc... --<cut>--

I'd then list the scenarios in a seperate area, collected with the various
other scenarios from other members.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder at ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...