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

[Matt Chatterley]

On Wed, 17 Dec 1997, Richard Woolcock wrote:

> 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]

> > > 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 ;)

*Laugh!*
 
> 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.

Heh. The course I've applied to there is Computer/Electronic engineering
(MEng), which leans far more towards Robotics (one of the two fields I am
really interested in, the other being AI). The software-based courses
looked quite dodgy, even in the prospectus. :)
 
[Snip age]

> > 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.

Very much so, it is also a disadvantage in some situations (but far
fewer). The fact that race is eliminated from concerns is something I love
- even where I like, racism is quite rampant (we have very little trouble
based soley on whether you are green or purple drazi, but if you come are
of immigrant origin, you are generally prejudiced against; even if you
were born here, or are a 2nd generation resident). Ironic really, since
said immigrants support our society rather solidly on their shoulders by
providing a cheap labour base (without which our tourism industry *would*
be in a far less advantaged position than it is now) - its just sad that
people abuse the situation with illegally low wages, and so forth.
 
> > > 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.

Oo. BBC! I used to love playing the old games on there (Magnetic Scrolls
and Level9, as well as a few others from various companies), and always
plodded around programming. When I actually heard about muds (in a
magazine article), I determined to get on the 'net and check it out. The
rest, as they say, is history.

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	ICQ: 5580107
"I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world." -Einstein