[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions

[Chris Gray]

[Adam J. Thornton:]
 >The Breath-Taking View is a *dead end*.  It contains no objects.  And on
 >the hardware common at the time, 100 baud teletypes, it would take quite a
 >few seconds to print out.
 >
 >Is that a reward for penetrating to the farthest northern recesses of the
 >map?  Or is it an annoyance for the player?

Hmm. Never thought of it that way. I'm pretty sure I was using a
video terminal when I first saw it, but couldn't swear by it. I doubt
that it was intended as a reward, but could certainly have been taken
that way.

 >Or did Don Woods just have a really neat description he'd written (the
 >"near cave" historically accurate bits: the entryway, the twopit room,
 >Bedquilt were Will Crowther's, but the Deep Cave is Woods') and had to
 >stick somewhere?

If you have something you think is neat, it can be hard to resist
sticking it into the game somewhere, even if it serves no real purpose.
If your audience also thinks its neat, that can be a good thing. All
the talk of mechanically generated room descriptions, although
technically a good thing (and so something I might do), may not be
artistically a good thing.

--
Chris Gray     cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA