[MUD-Dev] What about goal oriented interfaces? (was Re: [MUD-Dev] Text Parsing)

[Matthew Mihaly]

At 03:17 PM 6/3/99 +0200, Ola wrote:
>Chris Gray wrote:
>> Ola wrote:
>> > There is basically no reason to make a design which requires users to put
>> > things under, over, on top of, to the left of etc.  Basically, I'd
like to
>> > see the designer ask the question "What is the minimal set of actions
that
>> > will allow all the core experiences I want to support?". Then you make
sure
>> > that your design invites to the kind of actions you support and make sure
>> > that you support those actions rather well.
>> 
>> Only really true if you are writing a single integrated MUD system (which
>> includes the scenario/world). In a system with on-line building, or with
>> a programming language, the author of the system itself doesn't really
>> have control over what the builders will do. If such control is attempted,
>> you're likely to end up with annoyed builders.
>
>Heh, if you don't try any such control directly or indirectly then your
>system will be confusing and boring to anyone except those who built it and
>their friends.  Counterexamples please!
>

We have an OLC system, and you bet your <insert body part here> that we
have control over what is built. The only people with fairly unrestricted
building capabilities are Gods, and even they have to have most things
approved by an admin. Mortals get allocated very strict and narrow
permissions to create things, and nothing is capable of affecting anything
outside the area being built until it is approved by an admin. It's suicide
to let people build unrestricted, unless you don't care about quality or
coherency.

--matt




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