[MUD-Dev] thoughts

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Fri, 4 Jun 1999, Jon A. Lambert wrote:

> On 4 Jun 99,, Matthew Mihaly wrote:
> 
> This is one of the reasons I dislike the text spamming combat systems 
> commonly found in stockmuds.  Combat is then an arcade game of typing 
> speed and pattern recognition.  It's Tetris in text form.  Or a better 
> analogy would be Typing Tutor's Word Invaders (if anyone rememebers 
> that).  It's not that I dislike arcade games, I do enjoy playing Quake 
> and their ilk from time to time.

Most of what I've seen in stock muds isn't very spammy, comparitively, to
be honest (heh, you should see what it looks like if you're trying to
take on 3 people at once). 

 > 
> I much rather do a turn-based combat game in a mud.  Coming from a FRPG 
> background, I view combat as an extension and aspect of role-play.  As 
> such, I don't wish for its speed to exceed the pace of conversation.  
> Combat is a mixture of mechanics and emotives.  The rush and excitement 
> of my combat system is likely experienced in an altogether different way 
> than in your Achaea.  Victor and vanquished are often predetermined. I 
> daresay my combat system has far far more player options.  It is only 
> limited by the players' imagination.  

Yes, it does, but that, to me, isn't really a game. It's acting. I have no
problem with that, it's just that it doesn't really have anything in
common with what I am terming combat. Doesn't even make sense to compare
them really.

> And that's why we have strongly suited camps of players and implementors 
> (and list members), who like or dislike certain muds, types of muds, or 
> styles of play.

Yeah. It does seem to me (I know I'm guilty) that most of us approach
every question from a certain assumptive viewpoint. We don't generally
make our basic assumptions clear (if we're even aware of them), and so a
lot of the time we end up involved in discussions that are not able to be
reconciled, because of these different basic assumptions.
--matt




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