[MUD-Dev] Storytelling vs simulation, AGAIN! was Re: Influent ial muds

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Fri, 12 Mar 1999, J C Lawrence wrote:

> On Wed, 10 Mar 1999 18:07:22 -0800 (PST) 
> Matthew Mihaly <diablo at best.com> wrote:
> 
> > Boring is a subjective word. I can't remember if it was you or
> > Raph that pointed out that despite (or maybe even because of) the
> > ridiculous, mechanical simplicity of Shades, it was a lot of fun.
> 
> I did, and which you are right, is a very curious anomaly.  Some
> classes of simulations (eg SimEarth, SimCity, Civilisation, Empires,
> etc) also break this pattern.  Shades does it very curiously, by
> providing a very very simple obvious mechanical pattern that some
> remains "fun" despite its very apparent roteness.  Sim* get it thru
> complexity depth.
> 
> > By way of another, even more extreme example, I present you with
> > Pachinko.  
> 
> Touche.  It would seem that mechanility is not the corret term.

I wonder then, what IS the right term, or the right idea. Obviously there
are some things (at least I suspect so. This is just conjecture.) that
nearly everyone is going to find intolerably boring, but where is this
threshold and what are the characteristics that define this threshold?

--matt



_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev maillist  -  MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev