[MUD-Dev] Stranger in a Strange Land (was Usability and interface and who the hell is supposed to be playing, anyway? (Was: PK

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <E0xG1nu-0005qm-00 at crucigera.fysh.org>, on 09/30/97 
   at 07:50 AM, Maddy <maddy at fysh.org> said:

>Previously, clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote....
>> In <c=US%a=_%p=EA%l=MOLACH-970925223940Z-13404 at molach.origin.ea.com>,
>> on 09/25/97 at 08:36 PM, "Koster, Raph" <rkoster at origin.ea.com> said:
>> 
>> >On Thursday, September 25, 1997 3:17 AM, clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote: 
>> >>The primary effect I see of removing the WHO command, and removing 
>> >> the global namespace I do both) is that of removing the sense of the
>> >> individual players as being a member of a larger group of players 
>> >> all playing the same game.  It removes the sense of an instant social
>> >> context, "All of us on the who list are players," and with the 
>> >> removal of the global namespace removes even the pretense of baing 
>> >> able to place oneself in any even remote sort of social relevance as 
>> >> a new player. The result is that it tends to devolve them all into 
>> >> confusing world without clear ability to identify or locate friends 
>> >> or allies, or even know who or what might be any of these things.
>> 
>> >Yes, yes, yes. Couldn't agree more. The issue, once you have settled 
>> >for not having a global namespace, as JCL terms it, is providing a 
>> >rich social context quickly and easily without it.
>> 
>> A quick addendum here as some newer members may not realise the
>> definition of "no global namespace" as above.
...

>What if a player wanders about and names everything he sees?  Do you
>have some kind of decay on object/names that players haven't seen for
>a while, because otherwise you'd end up with a lot of object/name
>entries?

I don't explicitly limit the size of a character's namespace.  My
current method is to remove name assignments for:

  a) objects that are deleted.

  b) object names that are have not been accessed many times, AND have
not been accessed recently.  I also map this against the frequency of
accesses.  The more closely spaced in time the accesses to a name
assignment were, and the greater their number, and the greater the
time span, the less likely the name assignment is to be deleted.

>Firstly in the above example you're only limited to being able to see
>what is in the current room.  If 'look' displayed what you could see
>in the whole area you were in, you could at least follow the troll,
>or see other "people" with which you could try and talk to.  In fact
>it could almost be worth putting a mobile near where players start
>that is overly friendly to newbies.

This rather depends on the population density of your world and of the
starting location for new characters (and characters created after a
previous character has died, which doesn't need to be the same as for
new new characters).

>Secondly starting players in a nice safe environment where they're
>unlikely to get killed would probably help.

True.

>> Sure, go rebel.  Go do your own thing.  When you want to find out more
>> about the basic structure, come back and we'll continue from whereever >> you want.

>You'd still need some kind of linear framework?

I'm thinking more of a mobile which wanders the land on a set and
known track, pronouncing on the various features of the game, and
their uses.  You can join the giude at any point, or leave at any
point.  The closest comparison would be a guide at a museum.

I have allergic reactions to newbie areas.

--
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...