[MUD-Dev] Re: CGDC, a summary

[Jon A. Lambert]

On 10 May 98, Adam Wiggins wrote:
>  6. Events.  This is the one topic she hit on that I don't think we've ever
>     discussed here in any depth (or at all?).  She started by asking what
>     major community that has ever existed that didn't have regular, repeating
>     events - ie, holidays.  They greatly enhance the sense of belonging to
>     those in the community, as well as offering a good chance for folks to
>     socialize.  I found myself realizing that this particular topic is a lot
>     more important than I've ever considered it; the things that continuously
>     drew me back to the muds that I played the most were events.  However,
>     I don't think I've ever played one with mud-wide events that repeated on a
>     regular basis.  She also mentioned that a side-effect of the far-flungness
>     of online communities required that some sort of internal calander is
>     required; she said that UO recently implemented an internal calander which
>     displayed upcoming events, and allows guild leaders (?) to add their own
>     guild events to it.  (I haven't seen this, but I'd like to.)

Yeah we hit this one lightly a while back in the "mud games" thread.  
Mostly between Matt Chatterley and myself.  I expanded upon it a 
little more in the "A place of their own"  thread.  Basically I 
connected the idea of rank and positions to this giving players 
"realistic" in-game powers like kings ordering festivals and feasts 
and high priests setting up temple events, etc.  We didn't hit 
directly on the notion of regular holidays, though I think it's a 
wonderful idea.

Needless to say I agree very much with the above notions of how 
to breathe life into virtual communities.  Moving the ability to 
conduct such activites (which were are often administration tasks in 
many muds)  into players hands is also a leap in the right direction.

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