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

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On Fri, 19 Sep 1997 20:50:57 PST8PDT, clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

>In <01BCC450.6D97E470.caliban at darklock.com>, on 09/18/97 
>   at 07:10 PM, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <caliban at darklock.com> said:
>
>>Graphic interfaces  are inherently limiting in expression, which I
>>think we all agree is Bad on  MUDs.
>
>Disagreed.  I would assert that the austerity of the current MUD
>interface is one of its huge strengths.  

However, there is flexibility through 'emote' and 'say' type commands.
Neither of these map well to a graphic interface. While you can make a
GUI that handles speech, it will be terribly unsuitable for
communication with polayers as opposed to NPCs. I'm not saying that
there should be a HUGE command set (although this is more or less what
NLP seems to be directed towards in most current efforts), but that from
a GUI it is pretty close to impossible for me to communicate with other
players effectively. Large numbers of socials are a stopgap measure, but
still end up being inadequate.

>You may also want to distinguish between a GUI interface, and a GUI
>representation of the game-world.  They are two different things.

I believe I said something to that effect already.

>>Graphic MUDs are  another topic entirely.
>
>Writing as List Owner for the following sentence only:
>
>  And yet are on-topic here.

And have no relevance to the thread, which I was attempting to keep
focused.

>>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.
>
>No.  While I'll acknowledge that some players like this sort of thing
>and find them useful (which set appears to closely map to certain game
>types), many (more?) don't.  This suggests that the question is one of
>target market rather than generic usefulness.

Every new player needs to learn his way around the game. Therefore,
documentation is necessary. It is trivial to implement that
documentation in printable form and then zip it up on an FTP site, but
next to no one does it. So it's generally possible to browse through it
online, but nowhere else. Since the investment is minor and the benefit
is (in at least my opinion) major, why is this a bone of contention?

>Consider:
>
>  How many DIKU/LP/etc players have you seen complaining about lacking
>documentation for players?

Just about all of them who don't have a long history of playing. In
other words, new players. I know there aren't many these days, and I
would attribute that to the aforementioned LACK OF DOCUMENTATION.

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 You see me now, a veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I've been 
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 I'm young enough to get involved, too old to see, all the scars 
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