[MUD-Dev] Re: Mud websites

[Matt Chatterley]

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On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Robert Woods wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Greg Munt wrote:
 
[Snip]

> > What are their goals, and are they achieved? Do mud administrators provide
> > what users want?
> 
> A mud web site has a few goals that I can see:

[Snip: recruiting newbies]

> 	2) Documentation - Even if just the FAQ, info on
>            classes/guilds/etc, maybe a couple of player hints pages.
>            People want to have info, and having at least the basics
>            on the web site makes it easier for them to get info without
>            having to worry about scrolling text, etc.

Also, new mudders are going to be a lot more web-orientated, and will feel
more comfortable with receiving information by this medium.
 
> 	3) Community Development - From giving info about the admins
> 	   to player/character/guild/class/clan/... page links, it gives
> 	   the sometimes cold-seeming telnet game a bit of warmth, and
> 	   gives people the sense of community that keeps old players
> 	   in the game.

This is the most interesting thing to come out of this debate so far.
Getting players to organise in guilds to create a webpage, with
information resources, and advice, seems a very good step in expanding (as
you say) the 'community' feeling (one of the /good/ things about muds),
and encouraging group interactivity and play.

By making guilds 'clubs' of sorts, you can also work on this; the guild
members are a smaller group with more tendancy to work together,
especially when hostilities arise with another guild.
  
> > 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.
> 
> What...you don't like the really nice ASCII maps that abound on muds?
> I'll have you know that when I was an immortal on the mud I started on, I
> mapped out two domains in ASCII.  It took a long time. (Then they decided
> to totally change one of the domains around, but that's another story.)

This gets problematic if the player is using a non-fixed-width font,
though? Thats the danger with ASCII/ANSI artwork; at least with 'real
graphics' you can be sure that they see it correctly. Providing both is
nice, though.
 
[Snip rest]

- -- 
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.." -John Lennon (Imagine)

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