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

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

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:

>>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).

I believe, as always, that the main concern should be how the user
perceives the error.  If the user feels that the system is to blame
then you are in trouble, if he feels he made a funny slip, then it
is ok.  Failurerate and the difficulty of mastering the interface is
no doubt a key factor here.  I guess user centered design/evaluation
is the only good solution.

I'm not so sure about your sarcastic approach, I don't think users
appreciates sarcastic comments about their own actions from the
system!  However I guess you could make slips a part of the game with
careful design. Say, if you make a slip you might stumble over
a rock and discover something valuable on the ground.  I would say
that feedback from the system should almost never be in a personal
form, as that would somehow suggest that system is intelligent and
then the user would start to expect human behaviour and thus the
limitations of the system would be less acceptable.

Ola.