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

[Jon A. Lambert]

On 19 Sep 97 at 10:29, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> On Friday, September 19, 1997 4:42 AM, Jon A. Lambert 
> [SMTP:jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com] wrote:
> > On 18 Sep 97 at 19:10, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> > >
> > > Yes, I *am* talking about
> > > the user interface, and have been from the start:
> >
> > My mud is TEXT-only. It has a graphical user interface. I have no
> > plans to support telnet clients.
> 
> If your mud is text-only, the support of a telnet client is trivial; the 
> utility of a graphic interface is questionable; and you certainly appear to 
> be changing it for no good reason except to be argumentative. What exactly 
> does your graphic interface offer that you can't do in text? I mean, any 
> decent game client will allow you to easily define buttons and menu items, 
> so why a non-telnet client? Just to make people use your home-grown 
> protocol and software? I mean, if it's all text, where exactly does telnet 
> fall down in the first place? Telnet is a perfectly robust and efficient 
> protocol for text transmission in real time, and takes next to nothing in 
> the way of bandwidth and protocol overhead.
>
> Before you get into complaints about how telnet has no features, consider 
> that the web is built on HTTP which is a telnet protocol extension.

Wow. There's quite a bit of "assumption" going on here, based on 
a few sentences.  My users tell me telnet sucks.  Admittedly they are 
not speaking of the protocol, they are referring to command driven 
mud interfaces. Logging into that HTTP server with a telnet client is 
certainly amusing, but makes for rather painful browsing.

The only input required to be keyboard driven in muds is character 
conversation and emotes, unless you have voice recognition 
implemented.  (Not a bad area for exploration, IMO).  There is no 
requirement that text input be required for other character actions 
such as movement, combat, object manipulation, etc.

> It's worth noting that interface design is one of my major fields of study, 
> so if you really want to argue this issue I suggest you read a book or two 
> on the subject. 

Obviously I haven't a clue then.  
I've been reading "Of Mice and Muds" in my spare time.

--
Jon A. Lambert

If I'd known it was harmless, I would have killed it myself.