[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface and who the hell is suppo

[Matt Chatterley]

On Wed, 1 Oct 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

> In <199709272314.TAA16305 at polaris.net>, on 09/27/97 
>    at 04:23 PM, "Travis Casey" <efindel at polaris.net> said:
> 
> >Are there any muds which don't have a "time based interface" (by
> >which I presume you mean a real-time interface, as opposed to a
> >turn-based interface).  
> 
> Yes.  Most of them seem to be Web based.  Rock is a new example at
> http://www.deltapolis.com/rock/.

I suppose it also depends on if you count Crossfire or not. Its certainly
worth a look in this respect.
 
> >Turn-based seems like it would be impractical
> >for a mud -- if one player has to go to the bathroom, should all the
> >other players be put on hold until he/she gets back?
> 
> Nahh, just make default round times, with a defined tolerance for
> submissions.  Exceed the tolerance and you either get a default action
> (eg continue what you were doing last round), or do nothing at all.

Thats probably the only way to really do it in a multiuser environment,
without silly pauses between moves.
 
> >In any case, though, it should be noted that typos are an artifact of
> >the interface -- if the player actually *were* his/her character, it
> >would be impossible for him/her to try to weld a sword when he/she
> >meant to wield it.
> 
> Good point.
> 
> Can it not be considered that typos are a good analogy for physical
> fumbles?  Typos == clumsiness?  The neat thing of course would be for
> the server to attempt to track such typos, and to then generate
> in-game bumble actions (trips over own toes, swings sword and cuts
> self, fumbles potion and pours it over floor, stutters, gags, burps,
> farts, etc).

Heh. Perhaps. It does depend on the distinctions made between player and
character, because if you draw a big line between the two, its hard to
justify equating player mistakes to character mistakes.

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics." -?