[MUD-Dev] Graphic MUDS.

[Matt Chatterley]

On Tue, 29 Jul 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

> In <199707290933.CAA02081 at user2.inficad.com>, on 07/29/97 
>    at 02:25 AM, Adam Wiggins <nightfall at user2.inficad.com> said:
> 
> Re: What is needed to make a MUD
> 
> >...At the very least you need
> >something where you can choose a lot of options to personalize your
> >character, then have that character use those abilities to grow,
> >change, and learn new abilities, all of which are 'remembered' by the
> >game.  This can include anything from your skill with long blades to
> >scars to your character's birthday.
> 
> This would imply that simplistic level based MUDs with no character
> customisation outside of name, level, inventory, and possibly current
> HP value are not MUDs.  (cf MUD2, Shades, most Abers, etc).

Most relatively modern servers allow far more than this though - perhaps a
progressive definition. I do still maintain (pretty much for the same
reasons) that the real 'key point' of the definition of a mud lies within
level of interactivity with the environment itself. For instance, consider
the 'emote' commands on a vast number of games (all games have some form
of this somewhere, now, surely?). You could do :grins (or however the
syntax is structured), or :sulks. Very simple expressional terms - but
unavailable in many things people would protest as 'muds'.

Of course, you can take this tack with a number of commands - get, drop,
look [at] <object> and so forth.

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's
	mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." -George Orwell