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

[Travis Casey]

clawrenc at cup.hp.com <clawrenc at cup.hp.com> wrote:

>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.

Yes... I've thought about doing that before, in order to increase the
level of interactivity of a mud without giving a large advantage to
skilled typists and/or scripters.

>>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).

That could be done, but it moves more characteristics onto the player rather
than the character.  For example, if a mud has an Agility or Dexterity
attribute, shouldn't the character's clumsiness depend on this rather than
on typos?

To put it another way, it just seems to me that this moves the game closer
to being a video game, where the player's skill is the main thing that
matters, and farther away from paper RPGs, where the character is more
important.  Although not everyone might agree, I think it should be possible
for a player who isn't very coordinated to play a character who is.

(Of course, some things are *very* hard to separate... like player
intelligence vs. character intelligence.  Still, some things can be done
even in this area.)
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