[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #93 - 27 msgs

[Dr. Cat]

> From: Ola Fosheim =?iso-8859-1?Q?Gr=F8stad?= <olag at ifi.uio.no>
>
> Marian Griffith wrote:
> > Unless I am very mistaken Dr.Cat said "Attention is the currency of the
> > future".
> 
> I thought that was a rhetoric phrase...  Like "suits".  I still don't
> understand the exact content. Examples would be nice.

While much of the world is still on the verge of discovering this (or far 
from even the verge, if you ask a bushman), there's one tribe that has 
been aware of this for a number of decades now, and even has units named
for measuring this value in.  No, it's not a rhetorical term, human
attention is quite literally worth cash money, and will become more so.

The units are called "CPM" and "impressions", and the tribe is the 
advertising industry.  A little bunch of wacky people tossing tens of 
billions of dollars around, funding broadcast television, etc.

> From: "Christopher Allen" <GMFangs at ASMRB.org>
>
> We believe that there are a number of things that a graphic mud can't do, in
> particular, emotional context (try to get your UO character to bow
> sarcastically,) game worlds of enormous size and vitality, game worlds where
> all the players can play in the same "game" rather then autotomous instances
> of the game, and where the game size and number of players is actually
> relevant to the game play rather then being a nasty side affect. We plan to
> focus on those advantages as that is one place that graphic muds, due to the
> amount of time it takes to create unique graphics, can not compete.

Purrsonally, I think a graphic mud can and will do all of those things,
and that Furcadia will do all of them eventually.  Anyway graphic muds
certainly can have areas that switch to an all-text display, or better 
still a text display with a static mood-setting illustration and some 
background music, so they can certainly do anything that an all-text 
environment can.  You shouldn't focus on saying "our competitors can't 
ever do this" so much when talking up your muds, as saying "we do have this 
and here's why it's cool".

I certainly wish you the best of luck with your work, in any case.

I didn't know that Ichat had owned DGD at one point.  Strange.  :X)

> This list is probably not the right place to talk about business models, but
> I am open to talking with others about our business model for doing commerci
> al muds. We've done alot of research in this area but are quite open to
> learning from others and sharing what we've learned so far.

It's more interesting to me than a lot of the other subjects here, and 
there's no reason not to talk about it that I know of.  Though basically
at this point almost all talk is speculation, as nobody has really 
figured out what the business models of the future will be.  And the value
in talking about it lies in hearing whether someone else has some wild 
guesses that you yourself haven't guessed nor heard of anyone else 
guessing before.

We do have a few projects (Hi Raph!) that have figured out how to make a 
modest profit in the niche markets (primarily the hardcore computer RPG 
fan niche), but almost no kind of online gaming has demonstrated a 
profitable mass market.  Maybe bingozone.com qualifies.  I didn't get 
anywhere yet pitching an Internet based bingo parlor using the Furcadia
engine to the video bingo and slots place I've been doing contract work 
for, but it still might happen later.

Of course I'd rather get a deal to do an online world based on Poke'mon, 
or Barbie - hard deals to land, but a lot of potential if done right.  And
I think I have the core ideas worked out for a highly valuable way to use 
a mudlike environment as the core for some very effective e-commerce and 
targeted advertising.  That'll take a long time to grow, though.  We'll see.

Anyway I just saw my shadow, so I'm going to crawl back into my hole for 
another six months.  Bye!  :X)

*-------------------------------------------**-----------------------------* 
   Dr. Cat / Dragon's Eye Productions       ||       Free alpha test:
*-------------------------------------------**  http://www.bga.com/furcadia
  Furcadia - a new graphic mud for PCs!     ||  Let your imagination soar!
*-------------------------------------------**-----------------------------*



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