[MUD-Dev] RE: The great crusade....

[Koster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	J C Lawrence [SMTP:claw at under.engr.sgi.com]
> Sent:	Monday, June 15, 1998 8:15 PM
> To:	mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject:	[MUD-Dev] The great crusade.... 
> 
> 
OK, JCL, you're going to have to tell me the search criteria you're
using to turn up these websites. :) Many of them (the Gamasutras and the
like) I visit already, but this one is new to me...

> URL:http://www.suite101.com/articles/article.cfm/6102
> 
I noted that in one of his other articles he highly recommends Medievia.
Hurm...

> --<cut>--
> 
> For my self, The MUD I was searching for was one which could be summed
> up as a "working, non-buggy, role-played Ultima Online."
> 
Heh. :) Well, we're getting there. Except the role-played part, which I
think the hardcore roleplayers (such as myself!) need to admit will
never happen.

>  I wanted a
> MUD which not only stressed role-playing (as many do), but rather
> enforced it. [snip] I wanted
> a MUD where you were required to be in character every moment you were
> logged on, whether you were in a private channel with one other
> person,
> 
Ooh, this strikes me as a mistake. IMHO, since social bonds between
players inevitably migrate OOC, a mud which enforces no OOC contact
whatsoever is actually be self-limiting. Its community will not develop
precisely because it restricts itself to IC activity, which tends not to
be as emotionally and socially engaging as OOC contact.

> On the MUD I found, which I will now refer to as the "gem
> MUD," getting purged by the gods was extremely easy. Many actions
> which might bring you only a warning on a normal MUD would be punished
> by a harsh and public humiliation by the gods before a nuke. 
> 
Isn't this what Aristotle of Threshold touts as a key feature of his
mud?

> At the end, it all came down to one thing. It seemed that in finding a
> true role-playing MUD, you also found a place where much freedom was
> given up. 
> 
And of course, this means that it will probably never move beyond a
niche. :( For even though I myself would prefer an environment where I
were totally immersed (that happens to be my style of play--IC all the
way, never to break it except in OOC areas if any), there's really DAMN
few people who actually like that.

-Raph