[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <01BCC903.739FD230.caliban at darklock.com>, on 09/25/97 
   at 08:08 AM, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <caliban at darklock.com> said:

>On Wednesday, September 24, 1997 5:03 AM, Adam Wiggins 
>[SMTP:nightfall at user2.inficad.com] wrote:

>I don't want an all powerful character. I want a character capable of
> playing the game as long as *I* want to play it. Period. 

Hurm.  I want a character I have to fight to keep alive for as long as
possible, where one slip may meen perma-death.  I want the entire life
of a given character to be a ferocious gamble against the odds.  And
of course, I want God to play dice with the universe.

>> To sum up our mud, if such a thing is possible, in one sentence:
>>
>> Get as far as you can.

>The supporting extrapolation:

>  You will improve your lead by eliminating your competitors.

This presumes a competition, or that lack of peers improves one's own
chances.  Neither is necessarily true.  

>> It means that's it's a
>> dangerous world, full of surprises from both the game and other 
>> players.

>Dangerous is good. Hostile is not. The difference between the terms
>is left  as an exercise for the reader.

A dangerous world that is not also hostile would seem almost
definitionally twink/patsy.  Consider:

  There is a a very long path over a pit of lava.

  The lava is boiling, such that great gouts of hot stuff often flares
up on either side of the path.

  The lava is of course deadly.

This is of course a dangerous environment.  Step off the path and
you're dead.  Stand too close to the edge while a gout of lava blows
past and you're a cinder (and dead).  Yup, its dangerous.  Of course
the fact that the path is 50 yards wide makes it a cake walk as well.

Danger really doesn't add a whole lot unless there are actual hostile
forces to overcome.  Having low-orbit spaceship laser tag fights
around neuton stars is dangerous.  Make them black holes, add incoming
debris, and account for the fact that you'll be running into your own
reaction mass on each orbit, and all the interesting gravity effects
(laser beams /bend/, _and_ time dilation) and its downright hostile. 
The universe is actively consipiring to kill you.  You are surviving
on your wits and ability to break the rules.  The universe is stuck
with newtonian mechanics.  You are dancing with the devil, and hoping
to sweep him off his feet.

>> Did Tolkien's languages make his books any better?

>Yes, they did, as any linguist or historian could tell you.

The fact that Tolkein was also a scholar of ME and related languages
helped.

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...