[MUD-Dev] Text Parsing

[Travis S. Casey]

On Fri, 4 Jun 1999, Albert wrote:

> I believe the problem of newbies being confused as to what to do can be
> easily remedied by giving them a thorough introduction, a specialized area
> that allows a sort of interactive help system. And until they reach level 2
> or so, periodically give them tips, pointers, and help key words.

I agree, but I see a few possible sticking points:

 1 - How do you tell who's really a newbie?  If you make an experienced 
     player wade through several screens of introduction and then forcibly
     stick them into a newbie area, they may get annoyed or frustrated and
     decide not to come back to this mud.

     You can solve this by having some fairly easy way to get out, and 
     let people know at the start.  (e.g., "You may leave this tutorial
     at any time by typing, "leave tutorial")

 2 - How do you make the newbies go through it?  If you make it easy to
     exit the "newbie training" for the benefit of experienced players,
     some newbies will probably take that option as well.  One could say,
     "Well, that's their problem" -- but if they then start annoying other
     players by asking lots of questions that would have been answered by
     the newbie materials, it becomes other people's problems as well.

     For this, I'd suggest making it easy to come back to the newbie
     materials at any time -- e.g., having a command that will put you 
     back in them, integrating them into the regular help system, and
     having the newbie area be reenterable.

     A parallel problem can be "helpful" players.  The first time I
     mudded, someone offered to help me out.  He teamed with me, led 
     me around a bit (introducing me to the "follow" command along the
     way), gave me some armor and a weapon, and we went and fought some
     monsters.  Unfortunately, he didn't tell me much of use, and I 
     didn't learn anything about the layout of the mud or where safe 
     areas for newbies who were mudding alone were.  The next time I
     logged in, I found my way to the store where we'd bought my armor and
     weapon, bought the most expensive ones I could afford, wore them,
     and went out to the area we'd gone to together.  Naturally, I got
     trashed there by myself.

     After dying, I wound up with no experience again, only a little 
     more money than I'd had to start with when I first logged in, and
     a sour taste in my mouth.

 3 - A common pitfall of newbie areas is that they're insulting.  I recall
     one mud giving newbies a towel, a pot, and a spoon as starting armor
     and weapon.  On another, I got to experience the "fun" of having my
     character be beaten up by squirrels, rabbits, etc.  

     Even in D&D, in which characters are notorious for starting out weak,
     beginning characters can take on goblins, kobolds, giant rats, and
     other opponents that actually sound like they might be worth
     fighting.  Who wants to get beaten up by squirrels?

 4 - Determining when somebody isn't a newbie any more can be difficult.
     Do you do it by earned experience?  If so, what happens if a
     "helpful" player helps a newbie get a lot of XP fast, as happened to
     me, but the newbie doesn't really learn much from it?  By time on 
     the mud?  But what happens then if someone spends a lot of time 
     wandering around and talking to people before really trying to
     adventure?  Some combination or modification of these?

I'm not ragging on the idea -- as I said, I think it's a good idea.  Just
pointing out some possible pitfalls in implementation.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_        Travis S. Casey  <efindel at io.com>
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   No one agrees with me.  Not even me.
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) 



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