[MUD-Dev] Re:)

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

>At 08:15 AM 9/1/97 PST8PDT, Ola wrote:
>>If one is talking about a commercial system, mainly populated by
>>mainstream off-the-street people, then I don't think one can segregate
>>the population into rollplayers, roleplayers, chatters, netsexers or
>>whatever.  The same people do different things whenever they feel like,

[Jeff:]
>Precisely my point! It is a ap[rt of roleplay and not seperable.  threfor I
>dont' have a problem with them doing it in my roleplay space.  What I have
>NOT seen is your "crowds of textual perverts pilign otn oteh system".  Just
>doesnt happen.

MINE?  I never said such a thing.

>>However, I don't think making a commercial MUD dependant on the roleplaying
>>skills (acting and imagination) is a very profitable option. Actually I
>
>Tell that to TSR, Wizards of the Coast, and the entire Roleplay industry.
>You seem to forget that here in teh US the TSR novles have consistently
>been on the tops of the best sellers lists.
>
>Anyway, its our money andw ehave made our decisions on how to risk it.  Put
>simply, we disagree with you 100%.

Mebbi there is a niche.  The commercial developers I've communicated with
says they focus on communication and social stuff, and that a surprisingly
large part of their userbase is non-textmud, first time internet, non RPG
people.. *shrug*

>You don't know much about roleplay claearly.  Roleplay is a social
>phenomenon.

Well, actually.  To me, roleplay is creating stories as you go along
with consistent characters.  It may be social, it may be art, it may
be fun...  There are many variants over this though, but I view the
stats and dice part as a control mechanism, which for good players is
mostly redundant. But I only said that I rarely meet good roleplayers,
and you can hardly argue that a good roleplayer is a good actor with a
vivid imagination.

>If you really jsu twant to build a chat space then I suggest yo ucall it an
>'environmental chat space" or some such thing and leave the term MUD open
>for the rest of teh community BUT I think you are staring at a tree and
>missing the forest.

Well, I believe the RPG part of the space of possible virtual world is
very very very tiny.  My point was that MUD is being used as the general
term for recreational virtual worlds in most papers I've seen.  The more
academic term for the larger space is CVE or CVW. Collaborative Virtual
Worlds etc..

Ola.