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

[Marian Griffith]

On Wed 21 Jan, Mike Sellers wrote:

> The nifty thing about a graphical world is that you can
> show the user the more detailed version of the object, but you don't have
> to actually *tell* them about it.  So are those parts of the design on the
> chest really teeth, or am I imagining things?  Is that a pin with a glob of
> poison on it, or just a trick of the light?  Sometimes such ambiguities are
> easier to bring off with graphics than with plain text.  

That's of course one of the problems with text. Because there is so little
information actually available, everything that -does- get mentioned tends
to become important, possible even out of proportion. When I describe some
landscape and mention there are dewdrops on the grass then the natural re-
action by the reader  is to wonder why those dewdrops are important.  They
are not but there is no escaping this habit. You can overcome it by provi-
ding so much detail that the dewdrops are but one of many but then you are
losing most of what makes text different from graphics  (and have a lot to
write also ;).

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey