[MUD-Dev] Re: PC 99 standard Re: In game bulletin boards vs. Web based.

[Adam Wiggins]

On Fri, 12 Jun 1998, Richard Woolcock wrote:
> Jo Dillon wrote:
> > Mike Sellers (mike at bignetwork.com) spake thusly:
> > > I know, the university "market" tends to lag behind in some areas.  Still,
> > > if you're wondering "what do people have on their desktops?" -- for the
> > > vast majority of people it isn't a dumb terminal, and it probably isn't
> > > even a 486 anymore.
> > 
> >   Well, I've got a 486, and I'm a student programmer - admittedly I'm
> > upgrading soon. But I suspect that a lot of students - particularly
> > in places outside of the US (please remember that not all of us live
> > in the most technically-advanced country on earth!) - will still be
> > on dumb terminals or 486s and suchlike which they won't be able to install
> > serious software on.
> 
> For British Universities, I agree, but most people I know have pentiums at
> home.  We're not THAT far behind ;)  Some Universities are actually pretty
> good, but many are still really poorly equipped.  Student mudders still 
> make up a very large chuck of most playerbases though, which makes your
> points very valid.

I think a more important point is not "what universities have" or "what
microsoft thinks you'll have on your desk next year", but rather what
people actually mud from.  I mudded from VT100 terminals for two years
when I was at college.  There was a lab full of Pentiums running NT across
the way, a color Mac lab down the hall, and several labs full of
Sparcstations on the next floor.  But I still played in the Vt100 lab most
of the time, because it was the only one that was 24 hrs, and was the last
one to fill up during homework assignments.  Of course, I didn't really
mind web-based help - I'd just pop up lynx on the terminal next to me.
(Back in THOSE days, you could actually except to navigate a fair number
of web pages with a text brower.)
Nowadays the vt100 terminals are bowing out (*sniff*), but people still
mud from 486's with telnet clients (meaning no web browers).
Mudders automatically get the lowest priority access to machines.  Saying
that the university *has* several labs full of Sparcs doesn't mean that
the vast majority of mudding actually occurs from there.

Adam