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

[Travis Casey]

Brandon J. Rickman <ashes at pc4.zennet.com> wrote:
>On Thu, 25 Sep 1997, "Travis Casey" <efindel at polaris.net> wrote:
>
>>The "cancel command" part seems to imply a modal interface, which can be
bad
>>in a time-intensive situation, such as combat.  Also, this could be
annoying
>>if the command was typed by accident... for a somewhat silly example:
>>
>>The orc draws his sword!
>>
>>% weld sword
>>Do you want to weld the:
>>  1) long sword (in scabbard)
>>  2) two-handed sword
>>  3) short sword
>>  0) cancel
>>
>>The orc attacks you!
>
>The "orc attacks you" part seems to imply a time based interface, and you
>seem to think that a player caught with his pants down deserves some kind
>of special dispensation for making a typo.

Are there any muds which don't have a "time based interface" (by which I
presume you mean a real-time interface, as opposed to a turn-based
interface).  Turn-based seems like it would be impractical for a mud -- if
one player has to go to the bathroom, should all the other players be put on
hold until he/she gets back?

>But being unprepared for what
>the game is going to do is part of what playing the game is about, at least
>I presume so in this case.  (It can be fun when a game surprises you so
>suddenly that you physically jump.)

You're making an assumption that the player was unprepared due to stupidity
or
carelessness -- I didn't specify what had happened before.  It's possible
that
the player just walked around a corner in a normally peaceful area and ran
into
an orc there.  Alternatively, you could replace the orc with another
player --
the character might be wandering around town, in a normally safe area, and
suddenly be attacked by another player for no apparent reason.

For that matter, on a more realistic mud, there are many times when a
character
might need to sheathe or put down a sword to have both hands free; for
example,
to do first aid on him/herself or a companion, to pick a lock, to read a
scroll,
to search an item for hidden compartments, or even to loot the body of a
dead
foe.

In any case, though, it should be noted that typos are an artifact of the
interface -- if the player actually *were* his/her character, it would be
impossible for him/her to try to weld a sword when he/she meant to wield it.

>In what situations would you be likely to mistype "weld sword" with an
>orc in the room?
>
>- You were wandering around unarmed.
>- You were in the middle of changing weapons.
>- You were planning to charm the orc into not attacking you.
>- You had been previously disarmed and had forgotten to wield a new weapon.
>
>The question was how do these relate to the interface?  In the first two,
>you (the player) were just being stupid, so nothing to do with interface.

To reiterate, saying the player was being stupid makes an assumption about
the circumstances in which this happened.

>In the second and third you made a tactical error and although the
interface
>didn't cause the problem it made it a little worse.

Or possibly a lot worse, depending on the character's status and the realism
level of the mud -- the character might be killed by a single blow.

>Anyway, if a game surprises me and I further fumble the command/knock the
>mouse off the desk, I am actually more inclined to work through the
>consequences of the fumble than when, say, I am killed repeatedly by a
>fireball-tossing wizard because the mouse is not responsive enough.

The point is that, were it not for the real-time nature of muds and their
interfaces, such a "fumble" on the player's part would be impossible.  For
those of us who prefer our muds to be more like paper RPGs and less like
video games, this is a problem.
--
      |\      _,,,---,,_        Travis S. Casey  <efindel at io.com>
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