[MUD-Dev] code base inquiry

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Sun, 13 Sep 1998, Philip Loguinov -- Draymoor wrote:

> 
> >  Ilya, Game Commandos     http://www.gamecommandos.com    wrote:
> >I plan to strongly espouse that the hobbyist community dump all of the
> restricted
> >code bases (the DIKU line, nearly all the LPC line, and just about
> everybody else actually!)
> >and to find one that could be used commercially -- assuming the offering is
> good enough
> >of course.
> 
> Please explain why you want people to drop very solid source
> codes simply because you are upset you can't use them to make
> money.  These source codes are provided to people who want to
> run a mud for fun to save them work. Why would people who
> mud/run muds for a _hobby_ drop source codes provided to them
> under no cost or expectation. The only reason i can see is to force
> people to use commercial code bases, code from scratch, or play
> commercial muds

Speaking for myself, and certainly not a representative of anyone's
opinions but my own, I feel that it's perfectly acceptable to use stock
code, provided that stock code does not actually have any effect on
anything substantial that the user interacts with. I have a heavy dislike
for games that are total or substantial copies of others, and every stock
mud I've seen (admittedly, not a lot) violates this principle. They are
all fundamentally the same, design-wise. I can't help but lose respect for
a 'creative' effort when it doesn't even bother with anything resembling
originality. 

Now, I understand that one of the primary draws of a mud is the other
people, who are the equivalent of original content in some regards. In the
sense that a mud is partially a background for social interaction, stock
muds aren't so bad. I think more solid backgrounds, design-wise, would be
good, but I don't see them as fundamentally bad. 

My main objection then is one of creative snobbery. I'm fully aware how I
come across saying this, but frankly I do not like being lumped in with a
bunch of amateurs who downloaded a program, and slapped it up, after I've
spent years of my life working exclusively on MY world (as opposed to
someone else's world that you just happen to have gained power over). So
in that sense, I resent stock muds. 

--matt




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