[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions

[#Make Nylander]

On Sunday, September 27, 1998 12:16 AM Hal Black wrote
> On Sat, Sep 26, 1998 at 10:06:17PM -0500, Raph & Kristen Koster wrote:
> > 
> > On Sat, 26 Sep 1998, Orion Henry wrote:
> > 
> > > A room description does not affect a character and therefore
> > > should not pretend to.  In an ideal situation a room should not
> > > even make mention of objects or people.  It should be concise
> > > and at most two sentences long.
> > 
> > Again, the same accepted wisdom. I am more interested in WHY we feel
> > that's the way it should be.
>
> In other circumstances, you do not.  For a heterogeneous 
> population, it is unfair to ascribe the same feelings and reactions
> to everyone.  I think it is this kind of blanket application that
> people cringe from, not your specific example where ascribing feelings
> to place someone in a role is indeed a Good.

Doesn't it all boil down to suspension of belief? In text-based MUDs,
a player is basically a blind person being lead through the game world
by the game, a narrator/story-teller. If a player is being told his/her
character sees something the player knows is not there or acts in a way
the player knows the character would not, the player may think the
narrator is stupid, patronizing or lying, which undermines the suspension
of belief and sense of wonder.
There are several ways of maintaining the suspension of belief already
mentioned here:
- Having room descriptions that are generic, neutral or brief;
- Making the room descriptions dynamic; 
- Making the player character assume a role that is consistent with 
  the room descriptions;
- Making room descriptions (the narrator's POV) consistent across the
  game world.

		Newt