[MUD-Dev] Re: Mud websites

[Travis S. Casey]

On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Greg Munt wrote:

> How important are they? How relevant are they to telnet-only games?
> (Particularly to stock muds, where all or most of its features are known by
> almost all of its players.)

Never assume that.  Almost everyone I know who muds started on a stock or
semi-stock mud (since they're so dang common), and, of course, they didn't
know much about the mud to start with.

I've found that muds are like a lot of computer systems -- users beliefs
about them are a mishmash of truth, things remembered from similar systems
that aren't quite true on this one, rumors, and superstitions.  Players
usually lear the practial end of the mud fairly well, but they're often
way off base about how things work on a deeper level, which can cause
misunderstandings between players and admins.

> My perspective is that mud websites, as a medium, are wholly under- and
> mis-used. Most are put up to say 'here we are' and/or 'this is what you can
> do at myMUD!' - not much more than advertising spiel. The web could be
> taken advantage of so much, even by telnet-only games. Mostly, to encourage
> internal socio-political and cultural development (the more RP, the more
> advantages to using a website that there are). You can have online
> newsletters, websites for clubs/guilds, maps, histories if the world, lots
> and lots of things that could not be effectively achieved through telnet.

Well, it's not a mud, but feel free to take a look at the website I'm
starting for my new PBEM game (it's not open, so please don't ask to
join... I'll just have to say no):

http://www.io.com/~efindel/tobara/

As the opening page notes, it's not complete yet, but there's background
material there that may be of interest, and it's an example of how to
introduce players to a world.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_        Travis S. Casey  <efindel at io.com>
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