[MUD-Dev] Communication [was Introductions and..]

[Derrick Jones]

On Sat, 22 Nov 1997, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:

> On Sat, 22 Nov 1997 14:44:47 PST8PDT, Adam Wiggins
> <nightfall at user1.inficad.com> wrote:
> 
[extinguishes flames]
> that change. I'd like to see games populated by apparent idiots dwindle
> into a minority. I don't think it's the fault of the players. I think
> there are some specific things we can do that will inspire the proper
> changes in attitude. 

Actually, I'd like to see real idiots dwindle into a minority.  As the
on-line world becomes easier to access, the closer the mud-world
populations begin to reflect real-world populations.  Unfortuantely, most
people either are idiots, or are too lazy to think while on-line.  Now the
average interface for a MUSH is still to difficult for the average person
to grasp, as are the difficult concepts involved in role-play focused
games.  MUDS, however, typically have easier interfaces (none of those
tricky '@' signs to fool people), and much simpler game play (walk-to-X,
kill Y, recall...) and are more accessable to the 'average' person.
Therefore, you typically get much more intelligent conversation on MUSHes,
as the games are targeted at a more intelligent audience.

A good analogy would be a bar and a coffee shop.  Which would you expect
to find a burping compitition?  A discussion about next month's election?
Now, personally, I can be found in either place, and I don't dismiss one
over the other.

Basically, the 'problem' as you see it stems from both the fact that
simple games appeal to simple people, and muds generally have much simpler
gameplay.  Also, people generally behave appropriately for their
surroundings.  I'd imagine that a serious RPer on an avid H/S game would
be concidered just as out of place as the reverse.

In both muds and RL, the intelectual content of any discussion is
inversely proportional to the size of the audience.  If you're sampling
global communications on a mud and comapring it to chat rooms on a MUSH,
then its no wonder there seems to be a great discrepency.  Its like
comparing a TV broadcast to this mailing list.

[cut out a few more flames]

Gunther