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

[Chris Gray]

[Caliban:]

[Much snipped!]

My main comment here is "me too!".

:So here's my question. I know it was a long time in coming, but really --
:what sort of things do you look for in a MUD? How would you like to play,
:if you were to log onto someone else's game and find that it was exactly
:what you've always wanted?

I've been saving away all of the discussion about group activities, etc.
but it hasn't really had an impact on me. I suspect I'm one of the "solo
player" types, so I find the concentration on group stuff discouraging.
As a solo player, I find the idea of lots of details to look at quite
interesting. It's like reading a good book.

I also strongly agree with the idea of consistent command forms, truly
informative error comments, etc. That's why I was opposed to having
commands tied to objects/rooms/etc. when that was discussed a couple
of months ago. I don't find struggling with commands to be fun, nor do
I enjoy the frustration of trying to guess what the programmer decided
is the right way to do something.

[I've had enough of that in the last couple of days - I've been introducing
myself to Windows (NT) and VC++ at work - all I can say is that I've
been permanently cured of my foolish notion that Windows NT might be
a viable system for me.]

I don't see why using natural language syntax is a problem, however. The
key is to make most of the extra stuff optional, but you can use it for
disambiguation where needed. It really isn't much more work to allow both
"put sword in sack" as well as "Put the sword into the sack." The advantage
of allowing both is that you'll keep an additional group of potential
players happy, while not bothering others. I would argue *against* trying
to support "put sword sack", because it requires that you know the types
of all words (e.g. that both 'sword' and 'sack' are nouns), else you
can't support adjectives, multiple forms of verbs, etc.

[Much more snipped!]

--
Chris Gray   cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA