MUDs - An environment, not a game

[Adam Wiggins]

[Raz:]
> My thoughts too, and my ultimate aim, I think.  Main reason for this post
> is to ask Adam a question though...

*snaps to attention and salutes*

> What's the 'aim' of your game..?  Why will people play it?  (In fact, can
> they play a game, or do they experience a world?)

I've long felt that muds are only losely games.  I always get this feeling
whenever someone asks me to describe what all that shit scrolling by on
my screen is.  Their first question is usually, "Oh, well what do you do?"
And I say, "Uh, well...lots of stuff.  Whatever you want."  And they say,
"Whatever you want? ...uh, well, I mean, how do you win?"  And I just
kind of stare at them for a few seconds, then shake my head in defeat and
return to the -- 'game'?

I like this about muds.  I just think it could be taken further; instead
of the 'point' being to get high level and be able to slay all dragons
with a single breath, or solving every quest in the game, or whatever -
there is no point, except to hang out and have fun.  I actually wouldn't
have believed that this could be fun, but I witnessed some things which
changed my mind.  Now it's to the point that I actually have difficulty
playing other muds, just because I'm so used to how ours works.
In a way it's a bit of a toy.  You cruise around, and there's just a ton
of stuff to do.  But unlike most every mud I've ever seen (regardless of
codebase, although I'd say LP is the most 'guilty' in this area), it's
not just a bunch of soft-coded routines - ie, "use the silver mallet with
the gong and it opens the secret door".  Instead, there's a ton of 
fully working systems - botany, skulduggery, thaumaturgy, theology,
legerdemain, herbalism, disguise, stealth, bowmanship and of course, melee
combat.  You can easily devote a character to any one of these areas for
weeks and never need to bother doing anything else.  Hell, *I* love dinking
around with this stuff, and I wrote it!  Basically I've just taken what
a good powermud does with combat and done it with every other skill.
Imagine for a moment if you typed:

> kill goblin
You and goblin have a quick fight, resulting in his death.
You receive 10 exp.
> kill ogre
You and the ogre have a long drawn out battle, but you barely manage to win.
You receive 50 exp.
> kill dragon
You and the dragon have a short fight, resulting in your obliteration.
You are dead!

Pretty silly, but this is how your average mud handles most skills.
For example:

> pick lock
You failed to pick the lock.
(or)
You deftly pick the lock.

> brew potion with scale and brandy and dust in vial
You begin brewing.
(pause)
You fail the brew attempt, wasting your components.
(or)
You brew a dragon scale, some brandy, and some faerie dust in a vial.

Great.  Why not make these be complicated and drawn out affairs, as well?
I didn't think it would be fun at first, either, but how wrong I was.

Combat hasn't been in any sort of working form on our mud for ... oh, about
a year now.  I haven't really noticed; Orion is working on that, and I'm
sure it will be done sooner or later, but in the meantime I could really
care less.  (On the other hand if he does get it working it will be every
bit as kick-ass as all our other systems, so I will probably change my mind
again when that's up and running.)

Well, since it's getting late, and I've wasted too much time posting
tonight anyhow :), I'll sum up: I think all muds are this way.  That is,
just this big environment that the player is sort of dropped into, and
can make of it what they will.  Since this is the fundametal thing that
makes muds different and (IMO) better than other, similar, forms of
electronic entertainment, I see no reason not to take it as far as it can
go.  If I want to kill mindlessly I can play an arcade game.  If I want
to solve silly little pre-created quests I can play an adventure game.  If
I want a good story I can read a book.  If I want complex and mind-twisting
tactical combat and resource management I can play X-Com or Angband or
Wizardry.  But none of these can give me what a mud can - a completely
functional environment which is continuous and consistant, where (many)
other people in the world live and function without even knowing that I
exist (whether they are NPCs or PCs), but which I can interject my own
actions into and see a real effect propagate through the world in a way
that is consistant with my own world, yet the world itself is entirely
different and much more fantastic.  There's nothing wrong with resource
management, tactical combat, storylines, or puzzle-solving.  I like
all these too, and you can certainly have them.  But that's not where
the real deal lies, as far as I am concerned.