[MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds

[Chris Gray]

[Greg M:]

[Much snipped that I mostly agree with.]

:Is TELNET dead? Is the text interface to muds dead? Will muds catch up 
:with the rest of the now-graphical Internet? Should they? Will new
:JavaScript clients evolve, to ease the transition? Which of us here have
:been involved with mud GUIs? Perhaps you can give your opinion on this.

One of the popular aspects of MUDs is chatting and roleplaying. That
suggests that text interfaces need to continue to exist. Given that, we
then have to decide what is best done with a text interface and what is
best done with GUI things. One extreme is that anything typed is spoken
aloud. I don't like that extreme - there are other things where text is
required, such as writing in-game letters and bulletins, writing scripts,
etc. One route is to make everything available as text commands, and to
let players (or admins, builders, etc.) define in-system representations
of GUI things, that the player can pick and choose from (and customize).
The "buttons" in my AmigaMUD client sort-of allow that, since they are
defined by the scenario, but I haven't got provisions to allow the user
to control and customize the sets.

If you present a graphical image of the character's surroundings, then
it also makes sense to allow some sort of mouse input within that graphical
view. Here it gets harder to allow customization, especially things like
"attempt to walk to where I clicked".

--
Chris Gray   cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA