[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface and who the hell is supposed to be playing, anyway? (Was: PK Again)

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On Thu, 25 Sep 1997 20:32:16 PST8PDT, clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

>First impression based on the above and below paragraphs only:
>
>  Old time MUD player.  Seriously jaded.  

Fairly accurate...

>Looking for something very
>much like what he has done before so that he can largely operate on
>auto-pilot, but with enough new material to keep some interest alive.

Here's where you went a little south. I don't have a problem with a game
that I have to refer to the help frequently on; nor do I have a problem
with a game which requires thought. What I have a problem with is where
the game requires a specific action, I know what that action is, and I
am prepared to take that action -- but I don't know how to tell the game
to do it! 

Thus, interface. Not server design (let's make SuperDiku and do
everything right this time) or game mechanics (let's do AD&D squared),
but interface: not what I do, but how I tell the server to do it. 

And yeah, I like to do things on autopilot now and again. On those
occasions, I play Quake, not MUDs. ;)

>Aside: For me, any game which does not require my careful attention
>during play I consider a failed game.  

I don't want it to require my attention for an extended period of time
to enter one command. I want to go <blink> Okay, I wanna get the sword
and head north <type type type> cool, nothing weird going on <blink> and
be in some other application to do something else like adjust the
transparency on the middle layer of a PhotoShop image or kick out part
the default constructor for a new Java class, then zip over into my mail
client and work on a reply, then switch over to my web browser to check
some speaker prices, then roll my chair over to the synthesiser and
tweak the patch I'm working on before coming back to run a MIDI file
through the synth and check the sound. Then I might go back to the MUD
and see what I'm going to do now. Admittedly, I do too much shit at
once. You should see me cook. ;)

>As such a game which encourages
>rote play (ie which responds profitably to automation) is a failed
>game.  

I would say a game which provides the same or greater benefit when
automated as it does when run with forethought is more the problem. I
*want* to automate tedious things I do often; I *don't* want it to be
useful or advantageous to script out combat or exploration. 

It's damn near impossible to automate a WoD MUSH, BTW. The vast majority
of it is the internal organisational politics of an appropriate in-game
social group. I haven't been in a serious combat on my most common MUSH
for almost 2 RL years (five weeks to go). 

>>Category 3, unfortunately, is where most of my recent experiences
>>fall.  Which means I stagnate on the same old places and the same old
>>genres, and  there's little to no change. 
>
>Which statement most encourages the above impression.

I think somewhere you equated the types to the wrong aspects of the
game, e.g. to the game mechanics and structure rather than the way I can
interact with it.

>What prevents you from spending not doing anything else than playing
>the game?  

Generally feeling guilty about not having done all the other stuff I was
supposed to be doing. ;)

>Is there a point where you decide that a game has
>sufficient potential to warrant the effort expenditure to migrate from
>#3?

If something has downloadable documentation that I can print out, I
usually give that a shot. When I log onto a new MUD that I can't
communicate effectively with and I get seriously frustrated, I go
straight for the docs, and if those don't help then I drop it like a hot
rock. If it only mildly frustrates me, then I either learn my way around
it well enough in a short while, or it remains annoying and I just let
it die after a week or two. I want to think about how to act, not how to
tell the server I'm trying to act.

>As mentioned above I multi-task heavily.  The main result for MUDding
>is that I'll play for 15 - 20  minutes, th3 compile or whatever in the
>background will finish, I'll quickly get my character into a semi-safe
>position or logoff, fix the bugs (or whatever) and launch a new
>process, and play again till the next time.

I generally time-slice, with the only things taking a full 15-20 minutes
being the more involved things like graphic creation and coding. I zap
back and forth almost constantly, and anyone watching me usually
complains of dizziness. I'll enter three or four commands and then be
off in another application. Which, with modern application bloat, means
I eat RAM and CPU cycles like potato chips...

>Shortly after this a friend's BBS put up the FTSC comment of "Press
>Alt-H for IQ test...", and noticed that he got many more very short
>connects than he did before....

I listed that as my 'Page SysOp' menu item, myself. ;>

=+[caliban at darklock.com]=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=[http://www.darklock.com/]+=
"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more 
doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a 
new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by 
the preservation of the old institution, and merely lukewarm defenders in 
those who would gain by the new one."                      -- Machiavelli
=+=+=+[We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams]+=+=+=+=