[MUD-Dev] stuff that makes me leave (was Re: In game bulletin...)

[Dan Shiovitz]

On Sun, 14 Jun 1998, Matt Chatterley wrote:
[..]
> If I log into a game, and typing 'help <fairly obvious or partial topic
> name>' does not work, and one or two reasonable variations do not work, I
> leave. I will not visit a webpage to obtain help on a game (it's a
> hassle!). If basic help were available (or rather, all the help in a basic
> form), I might peruse an enhanced (hyperlinked, prettied up) version at my
> leisure. When I first log in, I want to know what I need to know in order
> to dive in.
[..]

Have we already had a "stuff that makes me leave" thread? Now that
it's summer and I have more free time, I've been poking around for a
mud to play. Perhaps my standards are too high or something. I messed
around at Shattered Kingdoms (mud.vividnet.net 1996) and left because,
although the world and skill system were cool, the simulation was
lousy (eg, standard merc/diku combat where you can cut off your
opponent's arms and legs and it's still not dead). The simulation was
much better at Forest's Edge (forestsedge.com 23) but there were so
few areas it was crowded and I kept getting pkilled by passing
strangers in the middle of town. So now I'm stuck again. Anyway, I
tried a few more places but didn't stay long for various reasons,
like: 
- having too many races as initial choices (never seen a good mud that
  offered more than a dozen initial races. at least, not one where the
  races had any meaning besides points.)

- offering stupid races (kender. say no more.)

- not having a way to get help on the races or classes or stats before
  having to assign them (as Matt says, no help --> I leave.)

- requiring too much detail to get started (Harshlands, eg, requires
  ridiculous amounts of detail to even get into the game considering I
  don't know if I want to play there or not yet) 

- wandering around a bit and finding out there's no clear pointer as
  to where to get started (this, I admit, is a little tricky. I don't
  want to end up in a "go north for mud school and the newbie zone!"
  sort of handholding situation, but I also don't want to get plopped
  down in the middle of the world with no guidance whatsoever. 
  Forest's Edge hits the correct mid-point between these really well,
  with a guide that'll say "hi, if you're new, here are a few places
  to check out", but you can do whatever you want if those don't
  strike your fancy.)

> 	-Matt Chatterley
--
(Dan Shiovitz) (dbs at cs.wisc.edu) (look, I have a new e-mail address)
(http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~dbs) (and a new web page also)
(the content, of course, is the same)