[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface

[Broly]

On Fri, 26 Sep 1997, Marian Griffith wrote:

> On Fri 26 Sep, Broly wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 25 Sep 1997, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> 
> > > On Thu, 25 Sep 1997 09:06:01 PST8PDT, Maddy <maddy at fysh.org> wrote:
> 
> > > >There is a whole lot of difference between brandishing a weapon and having
> > > >it in your holster.
> 
> > > Not in the eyes of the law, actually... walking out in the street with a
> > > holstered weapon is indeed considered 'brandishing'. But this is a
> > > legalistic term, in any case, and what you might also want to consider
> > > is that the social standards on a MUD are significantly different with
> > > regard to weaponry, as you can logically expect each and every person
> > > you see on a MUD to be armed at all times and rather experienced in
> > > combat.
> 
> > Remember that most of us are designing muds that are a bit more dangerous
> > than real life(excluding New York), and the denziens have grown accustomed
> > to armed adventurers.  Imagine how out of place a soldier _without_ a gun
> > would look in the middle of a warzone.
> 
> You can't compare mud worlds to medieval worlds of course. But it  would
> make sense that mud cities would have the same restriction as many towns
> in the american west used to have. Strangers are to hand over their guns
> to the sheriff before entering the town, or at least before entering the
> local bar.
> People in a mud world would expect travellers to carry weapons,  or come
> with an armed escort, but they would not particularly want them to bring
> those weapons into town.  Drawing a weapon bigger than a eating knife in
> town would probably be a serious offense  -because-  all adventurers are
> armed and experience in combat.

Why stop at weapons?...I'm throwing about a design for a restaurant ('The
OOC cafe') that won't seat male players if they don't remove their
headgear...

However, I've found that most players 'speedwalk' thru town, knowing
exactly which roads to take, and since there is nothing new to them there,
they really don't want to waste time when just passing thru.  I'd hate to
force them to remove their weapons everytime they wander by.  Inside the
various shops/homes within a town, I might actually make the guards and
merchants enforce a 'no weapons' policy...Probably in the form of orders
to remove followed by an attempted arrest.

Also what about magic in these places?  Even though magic is commonplace
in a mud-world, I'd imagine that a mage casting any spell will be
suspicious in some towns...particularly those that have been attacked
magically in the past...

Gunther