[MUD-Dev] Re: META: FAQ: Location, etc

[Richard Woolcock]

Matt Chatterley wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 13 Dec 1997, Sauron wrote:
> > Matt Chatterley wrote:
> > > On Fri, 12 Dec 1997 s001gmu at nova.wright.edu wrote:
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> > > > Name: Greg Underwood
> > > >
> > > > Occupation: Foole  :P  Student, primariy, Simulation design Co-Op to pay
> > > > the bills. (as a side note, I am probably one of the younger members of
> > > > the list, weighing in at age 23)
> > >
> > > I'm also a student, but waiting on return from my university application.
> >
> > Which university would that happen to be?
> 
> Edinburgh and Portsmouth, in Scotland/England respectively.

I wouldn't recommend Portsmouth university.  On the plus side though, if you do
go, and the network manager tries to kick you out for mudding, just point out 
the fact that he plays on a mud called Newdawn when he should be busy working ;)

Portsmouth University has a really crap comp. degree though.  They give you 1
hour a week of coding, and lots of rubbish like 'Law', 'Accounting', 'Social
and Organisational Behaviour', etc.  Not that there is anything wrong with
those courses, but if I wanted to be a lawyer then I would study that subject.

I mudded myself off the first year of that course and onto an HND in Software
Engineering.  Didn't learn much from that either, but at least it taught stuff
that was relevant to my current career.

> > > I think I can claim the accolate of youngest, since I am only 18 (I feel
> > > older, if that counts!)
> >
> > I rarely divulge my real age over the i-net because I have found as much
> > as people say that they acknowledge all ideas based on their own merit
> > instead of the "experience" (which I have sadly found is almost always
> > considered proportionate to age not actual experience) I have not been
> > take seriously in some circles. I think I can claim the title of
> > youngest being of age 15 (16 in April).
> 
> This is another interesting point (and one which I would vouch for). I
> would certainly not have guessed your age anywhere near accurately,
> because you raise good points, and generally seem to know what you're
> talking about (as much as any of us can claim to with a subject matter
> like this!). I think in public perception though, age does count when it
> is far younger than the norm (15-16, anything under university ages
> really, is perceived as very young in mudding circles, I think - which
> represents a skewed perception, since more and more mudders ARE younger),
> or of course very much older. A 13 year old mudder, and an 80 year old
> mudder would both be given extra (undue, and often unfair) consideration.

I find this to be one of the advantages of the net - people are accepted 
far more for who they are, simply because things like 'race', 'gender', 
'age', etc are often very difficult to find out.  I consider this a very
good thing.

> > My personal interest in mu*'s started with the "ow, wow, I want one of
> > those" comments. As I actually began to take my own MUD's creation
> > seriously I started to collaborate on other projects and really get into
> > C and some of perl (the perl came from an in-the-browser MUD named
> > ROCK). Currently I am taking a set of structured courses on C (though I
> > tend to have more fun doing the "learn by hacking" method).
> 
> I started off with similar thoughts and motives (didn't we all?), and that
> lead to my first game, and subsequently, first disaster. The second didn't
> get off the ground (it was a skewed attempt at ressurection). Over a year
> later, next attempt is doing well. :)

Actually I wrote 3 seperate text-based (one with a line-draw map) adventure
games on my Dad's BBC, starting at the age of 12.

It was only once I saw muds that I was inspired to learn C and have another
go ;)

KaVir.