[MUD-Dev] Re: Unix is a mud (Re: Ugh, IS Diablo a mud?)

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

Adam Wiggins wrote:

[Ola: Unix is a mud argument snipped]

> Although I know that this example was chosen largely from silliness, it's
> actually a pretty good point to discuss.  Most people wouldn't consider
> UNIX a mud; yet it has most of the mechanics we would associate with one.
> So, why not?  Putting aside lists of features for a second, as a player
> I know straight away what's "wrong" with UNIXmud:

Although I obviously agree with you in general, I see no point in admitting
that :). Most muds are clearly made to satisfy the visions of the designers
so a description of UNIX mud's background might clear up some misconceptions
about the system. UNIX started with the OS MULTICS, which was scrapped
because of prohibitive costs. Ken Thompson, who was playing with a spaceship
game, wanted to make his game portable, so he made a operating system based
on MULTICS which eventually became UNIX in 1973. Now, Thompson and his men
could of course not afford  to invest all this money in a computer game so
they had their employer finance the project disguised as an operating
system.  It is clear, to me anyway, that the computer game has always been
the driving force behind UNIX (albeit not the funding source :).

According to an anonymous source Thompson realized that the new generations
of programmers would never get to experience the joy of MULTICS.  If they
could not experience the real thing, the next best thing would be to create
a roleplaying world in which the programmers could get a feeling of the
MULTICS atmosphere.  The three was used as a metaphor for life, which is
reflected in the whole structure of the gamingworld. The beginning of life
starts at the root controlled by the God Root.  At the time of UNIX's
conception programmers were starting to be invaded by lots of annoying
newbies demanding support. Thompson realized that having these annoying
users in his system would completely ruin the game, so he deliberately
designed the game to appeal only to individuals which would be able find
their own way without pestering the admins with questions. The core of the
mud is the spellsystem called C. In fact, the entire mud is built in this
spellsystem. It is extremely flexible, so in order to balance the system
certain aspects are reserved for trusted wizards. There is also a more
user-friendly, but less efficient (consumes more mana), prototyping
spellsystem called SH.  Thompson was overwhelmed by the powerful spellsystem
he and Richie had created and wanted a minimalist system, so he decided to
construct avatars from executing spells. Each executing spell have a unique
ID.  Avatars are mutating and any user can have multiple. Some avatars are
robot like, others are under direct user control.  Avatars also have
multipresence, meaning they can be located in several locations. Each avatar
also have their own memory, although recent additions does enable reading of
thought.

Of course, as any stockmud, plain UNIX can be somewhat boring.  Some
implementations are quite fun though.  Our local implementation provides
plenty of games. We have a multi mana server system, which has been a source
of new inventions in the spellsystem. We have a "top ten disk pig" score
that is distributed every time the disk gets full.  We have a monster called
Idle Job Killer, which kills disconnected avatars who don't play nice. There
is also a really nasty monster called NFS which really can get you stuck if
you happen to be in the wrong location. The most challenging opponents are
controlled by humans though, especially if you play the subgame "how much
resources can I steal without admin intervention". A more social game is
called "learn about other people" in which users read other peoples mail,
files or simply snoop their screens. The latter is particularly risky and
may lead to a perm death and site ban. A couple of years ago players started
to abuse the system by logging in to other muds through our UNIX mud, our
mud admin got rather pissy about this and it was a banned activity for a
couple of years. I think the policy has changed recently, logging in to
other muds, and even simulating them locally, is allowed if it doesn't
hamper the main mud: UNIX.
 
> 1. My personal sense of location is very limited.  There are three
> major locations; my home directory and its subdirectories, the /tmp
> directory, and the rest of the filesystem.  Thus just having seperate
> locations with different names is not enough (note this mostly disqualifies
> irc); they actually have to function differently enough to give the player
> a sense of *being* someplace different.

As an UNIX imp I feel sorry that you don't appreciate the finer points in
the UNIX design philosophy.  Of course, no mud can cater for all user
preferences.  You have to take the target population into account. Back in
the sixties programmers were used to reading hex dumps and such and
virtually had to visualize the geography of the computer in their own mind
all day long.  They spent more time doing this than walking in the streets!
I am certain that if you spent more time staring at your computer screen
(and please, no GUI!) walking directories then you would feel a strong
presence and feel the great joy of traversing the file system, or "climbing
the three". I personally find great pleasure in executing the spell "find",
just to be amazed at the hugeness of the three of life. When I enter a users
home without permission I also feel a bit like intruding, it is almost as
exciting as entering somebody's physical home wondering if they are in there
or not.

> One thing I might mention was that the /tmp directory at my university
> was actually a minor social gathering point.  People would download large
> files (game demos, images, sound files) into the /tmp directory because
> they didn't have enough space in their home directories.  Then other users

Yep, this is a very popular strategy game. As you may have realized, most
games use restrictions in clever ways. Overcoming those restrictions give
you all the more power as a user. In UNIX your home can only hold a limited
amount of items, which is determined by the branch which it is located in.
Other strategies for freeing up space is stuffing items from your home into
your own mailbox (which quite often is located on another branch). You may
even transport items and spells to other UNIX muds!

> 2. My sense of other players is almost nonexistant.  Unless I specifically
> go seeking the information with a 'w' command, finding out who is around
> and what they are doing does not come to me.  There could be fifty
> other users in the same directory as me but I'll never know it.  I should
> be able to plop myself down somewhere and 'watch the world go by', as
> it were.  If this is not the case then I hardly feel like I'm part of
> a changing world, one which is not necessarily revolving around me and
> my character.

The first time I logged on to UNIX mud I asked myself "WHAT??? No
avatars??". This was clearly a mistake on my part. It appears that the
original designers had foreseen the scene overloading problem often seen in
large muds.  It was a deliberate design choice that players should not be
bothered with seeing other people unless they were looking. Just imagine how
annoying it would be to have people walking all over "vi" while you are
trying to craft a new spell. Multipresence (avatars staying in more than one
location) would make spell crafting an even more tedious task.  Hence they
added the general command "ps" which let you see the present avatars on your
mana server (and how much mana they are consuming) without listing their
exact location. You may however see the trace the avatars leave in the
three, it is readily available with the "ls" command.

> 3. My token/character/avatar is difficult to customize.  I get two
> things, really: .plan and .sig.  Of course, both of these are quite popular
> for this exact reason.

Yep, but it is primarily intended for guest users. Guests usually get a
predefined setup.

> 4. I have no long-term sense of change for my character.  Any changes wrought
> upon it are direct changes made by the admin.

Ah, another misconception.  Guests usually don't advance.  But regular users
do, they advance by extending their spellsystem. Spell crafting is the
primary activity. There are local variations here, on our system, you get
resources according to what courses you are involved in. The great pain, the
more resources you get :-).
 
> 5. I have no feeling that there are other things going on elsewhere in the
> world.

Really?  I guess you must have been using a very small mud.  I get the same
feeling in most text muds.  On our systems things happen all the time. The
NFS monster suddenly attacks, the lag monster eats your time, mana servers
fade in and out.. You name it.

UNIX is the most popular scalable mud around. And although some people use
it as an operating system in a business (it is very versatile), my guess is
that most servers are used in a recreational manner by programmers (it's
target population remember?).  I'm perplexed by the huge number of mudders
investing hours and hours in getting their Linux up and running just to sit
home hour after hour crafting new spells. I've also noticed that some of our
more eager players enter the labs at about 10pm with a couple of Coke's
playing all night. I guess they are avoiding the crowd of newbies and enjoy
the feeling of power when the consume huyge amounts of mana. They usually
log off at about 8am. As most mudders they probably don't have a real life.
--
Ola