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

[Chris Gray]

[KaVir:]

:I agree completely.  The desciption should be created dynamically accordi=
:ng
:to the players perspectives (I believe this was discussed in the player-
:recognition thread).  Bubba the village boy sees "A huge lizard thing",
:Bubba the village boy who's heard about dragons sees "A huge man-eating
:dragon", while Bubba the experienced dragon slayer sees "A young green
:Wyrm".  How would graphics cope with this?

You just present a picture of the thing. That way, the human player's
experience in knowing what your dragons look like will determine whether
or not they recognize it. The also relates to a point KaVir made later,
that in an RP game, it might not be appropriate for the player behind
the village boy to recognize the dragon.

:   The dragon grins evilly at you, a look of menace in its eyes.
:   The dragon grins at you with amusement.
:   The dragon smiles fondly at you.
:   The dragon smirks as it sees you.
:   The dragon glances at you, a wicked smile on its face.

As a human being, I couldn't recognize those emotions on the face of
any animal (tough enough on humans!), so I wouldn't expect to be able
to in a MUD, nor would I expect my character to be able to.

:Each of the above portray an impression as to the dragon's intent.  How
:would graphics cope with this?
:
:   You smell the scent of rotten flesh coming from the floorboards.
:   You hear a voice behind you say "Don't turn around"
:   You feel something cold and sharp pressed into the small of your back.
:   You taste the bile rising in your throat.

Exactly like that. A graphical MUD has options for visual things, but it
should handle non-visual things just like a text MUD would.

:Same here - but turn the sound off and no movie even makes me jump.
:I think that sound adds atmosphere which graphics alone can never do -
:When I first started playing Doom II for example, it used to make me=20
:feel very tense when I could hear growls around me, and sometimes it
:would even make me jump.
:Perhaps the next phase of mud after graphical will be "graphical with
:sound"...

I've got primitive sounds in my current AmigaMUD version. They are quite
effective. The first few times you hear the wild dog growl can be somewhat
alarming, especially if your volume is cranked up!

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