[MUD-Dev] Re: mudschools

[Mike Sellers]

At 12:40 PM 5/24/98 +0100, Marian Griffith wrote:
>On Sat 16 May, jacob langthorn wrote:
>> All mud's have zones,
>> whether they called dungeons or cities is irrelevant. Why not have a
>> starting city that is just like the rest of the world only tame, and
>> then a main city for every one else.
>
>This is more or less what the 'arena' part of the typical mudschool is.  It
>is a place were the new players can get some experience with the game with-
>out the risk of going out in the big bad world.  If you are hunting rabbits
>and lizards or a (fake) townspeople is less relevant. Of course being asked
>to chase rabbits, butterflies and similar harmless anmals  is somewhat con-
>descending, and players tend to resent that.

I still think the whole idea of mudschools is condescending and tends to
decrease rather than increase someone's initial interest in a MUD.  It's
kind of like saying, "glad you want to play -- please fill out these forms,
memorize these arcane commands, make these decisions though you don't know
the consequences, and go through this artificial and pointless process --
and then you can play!" =20

Here's an idea: why not use the age-old apprenticeship program?  Just as
many (esp older) muds have quest requirements for getting to high levels,
why not introduce a requirement that says that you must help <n> newbies
get to a certain percentage in your primary skill area before you can
advance?  This would give higher-level people an incentive to find newbies
and help them out, including equipping them, helping them learn the ropes,
etc.  The human touch is _much_ better than a cookie-cutter mudschool, IMO
(and it gives a reason for the more powerful characters to be interested in
equipment and parts of the game that would otherwise be irrelevant to
them).  Of course, this might be somewhat open to cheating by making
newbie-bots, but there are ways to limit this -- you cannot help newbies
with your same email address, they must rate your performance as a mentor,
etc.. =20


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