[MUD-Dev] Re: [MUD-Dev]World Size and The "Hot House" Factor Was Re: PK and my "Mobless MUD" idea

[J C Lawrence]

On Tue, 19 May 1998 13:14:19 -0700 
John Bertoglio<alexb at internetcds.com> wrote:

> From: J C Lawrence <claw at under.engr.sgi.com> 

>>> God, I hate discussions with rational, intellegent people.
>>> Me sorry.  Me try keep to short words now on.  Okey dokey?

>> Me-um gottum biggum, ohh, whatever.  <Phhhhbbbt!>

> JC: I just want to make sure you got the serious compliment imbedded
> in my sarcasm. Looks like you did, but I have a history of pissing
> people off by accident. This is tragic since I do it so often on
> purpose, it's a bummer to do by mistake.

Urk.  Me-um understand.  Me-um pull-um your leg.  Tasty!

I have far too thick a skin and take far too much delight in satire to
get bit by this sort of stuff.  Me-um troll-like.

>> UOL's most significant problem could very likely be its requirement
>> to honour the old Ultima games.  Forget PK.  That single limitation
>> apparently forced endless hacky compromises in the game design.

> You got there first on that point. Been meaning to discuss that for
> a while. It is clear from the sub-text of Raph's posts that there
> where serious struggles inside Origin among the single player rpg
> people and the mudders. 

Given the games history, I would have been extremely surprised if that
dichotomy had not existed.  Factually it didn't even have to exist
internally to UOL.  Consider: If UOL had deviated significantly from
the classical Ultima world, who much rucus would the True Blue
Righteous Ultima fans have made?  How much egg would UOL have gotten
on its face over that?  As happens it was undoubtedly both internal
and external -- which makes for wearing flak jackets a lot of the
time.

> The sad and interesting result is they managed to create unrealistic
> expecations while failing to capture much of what the ultima series
> had to offer. Ultimatly (pun intended), they failed to honor the
> ultima series and managed to ignore much of the experience the
> online people brought to the table. And despite it all the game is a
> financial and (to a degree) artistic/technical success. Just shows
> the pent up demand for this kind of product.

A comedy of errors, a train of mishaped and unfortunate successes, a
trail of stumbles and gallantly flawed rescues that somehow still
manages to save the day.  It takes real artistry to do such a Harlem
Globetrotter's job, even more to pull it off.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                               Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------(*)                     Internet: claw at under.engr.sgi.com
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...

--
MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.