[MUD-Dev] Re: Ugh, IS Diablo a mud?

[Damion Schubert]

-----Original Message-----
From: Ryan Prince <jynx_ryn at mindless.com>

>I would also like to add ROLE-PLAYING onto my list, however, it has not
become
>important enough, yet. So I tend to go with MURPEs ( Multi User Role
Playing
>Environments ), rather than MUDs. ( BTW, I have seen lots of
>modified-but-diku-based MURPEs out there, especially RoM based stuff.)


It's interesting to note that MUD is a title of mixed
blessing.  Go ahead and try to tell your average
MUCK or MUSH wiz that he's running a MUD.  He'll
angrily deny it, and try to squeeze the notion that
combat exists in a MUD.  Their game has no combat,
therefore it's not a MUD.

On Meridian, our marketing department actually
argued at great length as to whether or not we
wanted to call M59 a MUD.  It's a very nerd-oriented
title.  The marketing departments of computer
companies like to put things in categories, and it's
easy to tell the consumer about an upcoming '3D
shooter', or an upcoming 'real time strategy game'.
But M.U.D.?  First off, Multi-User is no longer a
very original trait - it can be applied to hundreds of
games out there.  And 'Dungeon' --- well, Meridian
only had a couple of Dungeons.  Like most Dikus,
most of the world building time was spent on the
cities and the world.  There was a definite feeling
that MUD was a title that would not sell to someone
who didn't know about the genre already.

I resisted applying 'MUD' to the game as well, for
a different reason.  If you stretch a label too far, then
it ceases to be meaningful.  When you tell someone
that DOOM is a MUD and DungeonKeeper is a MUD,
then MUD is a word that means 'more than one player,
in some fashion'.  I actually prefer to say that MUDs
are 'that generation of text-only, generally free,
multiplayer games I used to play in college'.  Then,
when someone tells me he's mudded in a job
interview, I know what he means.

Trying to apply or stretch the rules of a genre title,
especially by using the name of the genre as the
rule, is somewhat disingenious, and attempts to
break the genre expectations that we have.  For
example, Meridian 59 and Ultima are both played
in real-time. And in both, there is a great deal of
necessary strategy, for example, in getting your
guild to work together to take over a guild hall.
However, I don't think that anyone here thinks that
either of the games is a 'Real-Time Strategy' game,
as we commonly think of it.  Hell, my friend at work,
who is a real RTS buff, thinks that MechCommander
is not a RTS, due simply to the fact that there is no
building/resource gathering in it.

So what should we call UO, M59 and EverQuest?
To be honest, I think they are different enough to
merit their own title.  The one that's floating around
the internet right now is MMPOG, or 'Massively
MultiPlayer Online Game'.  Personally, I hate the
term 'massively multiplayer', and 'multiplayer online'
borders on redundancy.  Also, the term is generic
enough that Medievia could fit under the umbrella,
too (after all, Medievia is probably more 'massive'
than M59).  I once played with the term Multiplayer
Advanced Graphically Oriented Game, simply
because I liked the acronym (MAGOG), but as you
could tell, I couldn't think of a better word for 'A', and
I really think some level of persistence to world should
be mentioned.  Ah, well.

--damion