[MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds

[##Make Nylander]

[Original message sent by Greg Munt]
| 
| I believe that moving muds into a graphical medium would allow greater 
| popularity to be achieved. For many people, the Web *is* the Internet. So 
| let's bring muds to the web.
| 
	For me, the idea of a graphics-only MUD has always sounded like
	"we invented video tape, now let's burn all the books!".

	I think a distinction needs to be made between player input and
	game output. There are a number of MUD clients already available
	that make command input easy and intuitive. As for using graphical
	medium for representing the actual game world and events, I
	think the problem is not technical implementation but producing
	the actual game contents. A well detailed room using written text
	takes a fraction of the time needed to produce a quality graphical
	presentation of the same room. 

	How do you define the Web? Is it just plain HTML, is it JavaScript,
	is it Java applets, is it ActiveX? Web technology is diverse and
	constantly changing. Any technology you choose today may be
	obsolete tomorrow. Telnet is primitive and restrictive, but it's
	_accessible_. You can access Telnet-based MUDs via any kind of
	system from dumb terminals to high-end workstations. 

	There's plenty of room on the net for graphical MUDs, and they're
	probably a lot more appealing to the Nintendo generation than 
	traditional text-based MUDs. But for people like me, who've grown
	up playing RPGs, the representation of the game world is of no
	importance, since we've already got the best medium of all available:
	our imagination.

		-- Newt

--
I never regret my failures, but I regret every missed opportunity.