[MUD-Dev] FAQ: Personality Clash

[Greg Munt]

On Mon, 22 Dec 1997, Ling wrote:

> Personalities Summary
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Persons below are separated by a big line.  I chose to guess whether the
> introductions in my archive were still valid or not.  The following have
> been missed out (ie: bop me if you're reading this and you're not in this list):
> 
> 	Greg Munt

[Big Bop]

I lurk too much. Partly due to being unemployed (maybe I should petition 
BT(*) for free local calls), being overwhelmed by list traffic, and partly 
due to the fact that I have been in New York for the past 3 or 4 months. Whilst
there, I got engaged to a Bahamian. Maybe my email address will swap a 'uk' for
a 'bs' soon (reasonably likely). At least local calls are free there. Grrr.

Found muds in early '94, in the form of a Tiny derivative, UglyMUG (one of 
the few muds on JANET(**)'s PAD network at that time). Left six months later to
join the administration of a derivative of Ugly. 18 months after that, was 
running it. 6 months after that, had been kicked out of the admin team, and 
banned - now bitter, twisted, and forever opposed to democratic muds. The 
so-called "Admin Wars" produced a satirical re-telling of Star Wars, 
where I was reduced to a dribbling figure, shivering over a VIC-20 and a 
2400 baud modem. (I kid you not.)

My 'real' experience has been working in COBOL/DB2 for British Steel. 
Currently I'm trying to use that to get a job. Alternatively I might 
have an opportunity as a Junior Games Programmer (with CodeMasters - 
possibly UK-only company? *shrug*)! Who said mudding was a waste of time? :)

Since selling the VIC-20 (*koff*), I hacked up a mud from scratch, and 
after six months produced "Frontiers". The website (at 
http://www.uni-corn.demon.co.uk) was produced - not by me, I hasten to 
add - in 6 days, and is infinitely better. It was around this time that I 
began reading rec.games.mud.admin, and Martin Keegan wandered onto 
Frontiers. (Read DejaNews for the results;)

Now, Frontiers has been closed down, and I have started anew. First 
efforts are always worst efforts - probably - but I learnt a lot from it, 
and continue to plod through. Current project is called "Ubiquity", and 
is, I am quite proud to announce, at the design stage (Frontiers started 
at the implementation stage *doh*). At the moment, it is nothing more 
than a BBS with talker extensions, but I plan to later turn that into an 
underlying command shell for a coordinate-based, all-singing, all-dancing 
mud (yes, I'm still working that bit out). The command shell idea was 
actually suggested (or I evolved it from one of his ideas, I can't 
quite remember) by Nathan Yospe, on this list. This time I am going 
slowly, working on the things I know about first, rather than tackling 
everything at once, and achieving nothing (see Frontiers).

                      Age: 24.
                   Height: 6'8 (which may be irrelevant - though it's always 
                           sort of relevant to people, when they meet me).
                    Likes: unconventional ideas.
                 Dislikes: the accepted norm (see DejaNews).
          Worst attribute: 50% of my time is spent planning; 5% of my 
                           time is spent carrying out those plans.
           Best attribute: Selfless, emotional.
 Best thing about my life: I'm so in love...
Worst thing about my life: ...with someone who lives thousands of miles away.
            Claim to fame: I once met Ling's brother. He compared me to 
                           John Lennon, which I still find amusing. 
                Signature: this one will become semi-permanent, I 
                           think. It almost illustrates my opinion of the world.
                           Ha - even my mother calls me arrogant, now.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a 99% chance that I hate and despise your miserable little existence.

(*) British Telecommunications charge 1UKP/hour for local phone calls. Scowl.

(**) The Joint Academic NETwork - now forms the *.ac.uk part of the Internet.