[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...

[Marian Griffith]

On Wed 24 Sep, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:

> On Wednesday, September 24, 1997 4:29 AM, clawrenc at cup.hp.com 
> [SMTP:clawrenc at cup.hp.com] wrote:

> > Reese reports that being a fisherman, and thus spending ones play time
> > sittting about fishing and telling stories is popular with a certain
> > set of players.  One could easily imagine a similar scenario for
> > musicians sitting about strumming and swapping songs.

> Note that you would not actually need a fishing skill or musical instrument 
> skill for either of the above. I agree, musicians are a nice thing, they 
> contribute vastly to the enjoyment of the world; but why do we actually 
> need game mechanics to handle it?

Basically this is the same question as:
Why bother with descriptions on rooms and monsters in a (traditional)
mud at all?  It does not add anything to the game, which is all about
killing monsters.
The answer is that it provides the player with an atmosphere. It also
helps the players to immerse in the game/story. From the viewpoint of
purely playing (winning) the game all this is unnecessary but it sure
is nice to have all that around as even the most die-hard gamer would
agree with me.

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey