[MUD-Dev] Mud Games

[Matt Chatterley]

On Sat, 6 Sep 1997, Jon A. Lambert wrote:

> On  6 Sep 97 at 17:45, Matt Chatterley wrote:
> > 
> > [I'm a little unsteady at the moment, since I've just been to my birthday
> > party, but will attempt to reply]
> 
> Hopefully, you left the cows alone. 
> <insert obligatory sheep comment here>

Ha. Sheep are the big thing on the neighboring island. And strangely, one
of the party guests was Welsh.
 
> > Heh. Wow. Thats quite a party trick. This also brings some interesting
> > thoughts to my mind as to 'thematic equivalents' for rodeos and such -
> > sounds like they could be great fun as well as good shows of physical
> > prowess.
> 
> Hmmm.  Why don't muds implement....(well some may, but off the top of 
> my head)

Here we go:
 
> Horse racing, Bull fighting, cock fighting, frog jumping.
> Running, swimming, three-legged race, sack race, marathon.
> Archery contests, Taber tossing, Rock/shot/discus throwing, weight 
> lifting, Gladiator events, wrestling, boxing, martial arts.
> Horse shoes, rowing, canoeing.
> hrrm.. team sports like mud-football(?)..

I've seen football (by which I mean soccer) coded badly on one mud (It
basically didn't work, but was a nice idea), and lots of mud have 'arena'
pits where players can duel (this is rather unimaginative, and on my mud
would be rather lethal for the players involved - no safe deaths!)

I like the idea of translating field events (and possibly track events!)
onto the mud, and other sports in the vein, but I think having
combatative, and watchable events (as well as directly particible in) is
good too. Bull fighting, Cock fighting and races of some kind (which you
can bet on) look good to me.
 
> I think games were very common as were the events that hosted them.  
> Fairs have been around since medieval times. The Greeks and Romans 
> used any excuse to hold a feast often explicitly for games or 
> tournaments.   

Oh yes. The 'fayre' is something that I will probably use - as a host
place for both lighthearted, and less pleasant things (something for
everyone - for instance a cock fight off to the side out of public view).
Several historical civilisations have had a great love for public games
and entertainment - they didn't have television!
 
> Did you know the Greeks played two-man/woman tag?  
> An oyster shell was tossed in the air.  If it landed white (inner) 
> side up that person became the pursuer, otherwise the other person 
> did.   

Neat.
 
> > The jousting tournament and other medieval things are somewhat cliched,
> > and I'd like to think of something original, hmm.
> > Catch-the-greased-swamp-dragon? :P
> 
> Then again I haven't seen jousting implemented, so it might not be a 
> mud cliche yet.

True - its a thematical cliche though. It'll be implicitly possible as a
consequence for me (since if you have a large weapon like a lance, and are
on a mount, and dash at something, you joust it).
 
> Some questions come to mind. 
> Take the simple(?) case of a character racing event. 
> 
> Can one effectively implement a "race" in a mud?  

Yes, and no - doing it in a way that has 'player participation' could be
tricky.

> What sort of mud structures would be needed?  

A racetrack? :P

> What sort of presentation do you deliver the racer?

Toughie. Lots of messages, rather than room descriptions?

> Would user input be needed to sustain a racing character?

I'd say no - but we should have some degree of interaction with the
player, so perhaps allow 'foul play' and/or allow them to pace themselves
for long races (eg, run slower .. run faster .. at key points).

> What sort of character stats are important?  

Stamina, lower body strength, reaction speed (if foul play is a factor),
encumbrance (noone is going to win a 100m sprint in chainmail or plate
armour).

> Exhaustion, stride, quickness, agility, strength, etc.?

Size of body is also a factory - bigger = bigger steps, but usually slower
bigger steps.

> Room-based or coordinate-based?

Coordinate, within one room (or out of all rooms, technically).

> What's the player FUN quotient here?

Thats the toughie. I suspect that watching and gambling on the outcome of
races would be more fun than participating in them.

I intend to have at least one 'gladatorial arena' belonging to a mildly
unsavory people who regard 'foul play' as completely fair though, so it
may be interesting. :)

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"In space, you never know when to expect danger.. except when an
Enterprise away team beams down on a routine mission." -Greg Proops