[MUD-Dev] Introduction

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <Marcel-1.09-0509143726-0b0Ky&5 at Gryphon.iaehv.nl>, on 05/09/97 
   at 07:06 PM, Marian Griffith <gryphon at iaehv.nl> said:

>As Chris Lawrence requested a quick introduction of me.

>My name is Marian Griffith and I'm one of those roleplayers he
>mentioned. I'm afraid I will be completely unable to make any sense
>in coding discussions, apparently I have this real talent in being 
>unable to understand computers. I can use them if I'm carefull about 
>it ;)  I do enjoy roleplaying games, and I like muds that go beyond 
>the simple hack and slash that is most common. 

In my own defense for inviting the recent rash of RP'ers to the list
(Marian, Jamie et al) and encouraging them to foment RP threads, I'd
better comment that I don't RP, the RP aspects of MUDding don't appeal
to me, and I find the immersive RP'ers on the MUDs I do play actively
annoying.  This is of course not to say that its not an important part
of MUDding -- just that its not a part that has value to me.

For me the value is in the MUD as a game, as a system of internal
complexity and delightful intricacies and twists whose inner workings
and manifolds can be explored, twisted and exploited.  It is a
systemic experience much on a par with exploring a new field of
mathematics (if you're into that sort of thing), or discovering an
impossibly new and unique world-view in an SF book that shifts your
entire frame of reference (eg Myers' Silverlock, Vance's Fire Upon the
Deep, Sullivan's Lethe, Zindell's Neverness, Budry's Who? or Rogue
Moon, Hubbard's Mission Earth).  In that model RP is just a
distraction from the real pleasures.

I tend to the view that if I want RP I'll go see a play.  That to the
side, I must realise that this is not a common view, or a widely
appreciated value system.  As such I should acknowledge that RPing
holds a near and dear place to many MUDders and influences if not
forms much of the game structure.

This is why you'll probably see me encouraging RP threads on the one
hand, and actively diverting them back into nice understandable
amusingly clever technical areas on the other.

>The reason why I like 
>muds is simple, they have things happening with or without players taking
>action, unlike the majority of mushes and the like, where you
>basically have nothing going on unless two or more players are
>willing to act it out. 

Here I agree.  I like MUDs that are self-animating, that are
self-consistent without requiring the presence or activities of
players.  This allows players to effectively inject into an already
working and actively processing system at whatever their choice of
venue is, and from that point to elect what changes they'd like to
make or explore.

>...On of the things I've been hoping
>to achieve is encourage somebody who can actually program a computer
>into creating a game that enforces roleplaying simply by acting like
>a real, living, world in which the players are only one part. And a
>part that can affect the entire world only in a minor way. As one way
>of achieving this I'm working on a webpage, with a couple of friends,
>where I collect ideas and links that people who enjoy roleplaying
>might find of interest. It has a collection of roleplaying oriented
>game ideas that is called the overlord project. 

Care to drop the URL here?

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...