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

[Chris Gray]

[Caliban:]

:I have a vast number of things to add to this, but they are almost all 
:off-topic. Suffice to say that in many places graphic interfaces are not
:actually appropriate, and MUDs are one of those places. Graphic interfaces
:are inherently limiting in expression, which I think we all agree is Bad on
:MUDs.

Limiting expression is bad. That does not imply that graphics is bad. It
only implies that a limited graphics-only input system is bad.

:> Even mainframes have abandoned such archaic interfaces.
:> Telnet really does suck and turns off thousands of potential users.

:Then let them go to Quake servers and join Ultima Online. Graphic MUDs are
:another topic entirely.

Why? I can be just as lazy as them. I read lots. Likely not as much as
you, but I've got thousands of books. I still prefer the simplistic
graphical output that my system has over straight text. It's *easier*.

:> I see no need for player
:> documentation to be printable or downloadable.
:
:If I can't download the documentation and look at it while I'm not on your
:game, it's harder for me to learn my way around. If I can't print it, it's
:harder for me to find information on commands. Hardcopy and local copies
:are important. But as the game's designer, or as one of its primary
:founding players, you won't understand it... it's easy, see, not that much
:at all.

Agree 100% here.

:> I like consistent themes.  I wouldn't find it amusing to run into
:> Elvis in Babylon.
:
:I would find it vastly amusing, provided he wasn't presented as 'Elvis' but
:as 'An aging and overweight man with long sideburns, wearing a bright white
:gem-studded suit and dark glasses. He jerks his head and gyrates his hips
:at odd times, and seems to have some form of nervous disorder.' Dropping
:Elvis into Babylon is stupid. Dropping someone that *looks* like Elvis into
:Babylon is funny.

Disagree here. There are lots of amusing stories around about Elvis being
a space alien, being a strange person hiding out somewhere, so why not
back in Babylon. Someone other than Elvis that looks like him is just a
big anachronism (dark glasses???) and very out of place.

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