[MUD-Dev] Mud reviewing

[Andy Cink]

At 02:59 PM 1/26/99 -0800, matt(diablo at best.com) wrote:
>> >Perhaps there should be some way of showcasing new, original muds, like
>> >a mudlist in which an imp would submit her mud, and a volunteer would
>> >evaluate the mud for uniqueness and non-stock-ness, and write a short
>> >review containing his first impressions.
>
<snippage pertaining to mud reviewing>
>
>I think one problem with reviewing any non-stock mud is the time required
>to get to know the game in any depth. Unless you play for at least a
>couple hundred hours, your review is, imho, akin to reviewing a movie
>without bothering to watch the whole thing.

Most movies I know of are nowhere near 100 hours, let alone 200 hours :P
Even the Godfather series isn't THAT long <g> You have to figure, with
the number of muds out there, that there's virtually no reviewers who
are going to have that kind of time to spend on a review. I would consider
4 hours a good amount of time to spend reviewing a mud. I guess it depends
on what you consider non-stock, too, though. I don't see how people can
discern between who deserves 4 hours, who deserves 12, and who deserves
100.

Hopefully reviewers are going to review more than one mud, so I think it
is reasonable to expect that they'll not stay for more than a few hours.
I also think that supposing each reviewer does have biases, if people
can read all of the reviews, hopefully one of the reviewers preferences
match their own. If a person happens to like hack 'n slash, perhaps the
review by the hack 'n slash liking reviewer would best tell that person
if they'd enjoy playing on the mud or not. Just like real life, you can't
really expect that everyone is going to like your game. Some people want
a graphical game, some want text. Some want to kill mobs, some want to
kill players, and some want nothing to do with killing at all. Keeping
this in mind, having 2 or 3 of 4 liking your mud is actually pretty darn
good.

Andy


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