[MUD-DEV] a shrinking pool of players?

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Thu, 17 Feb 2000, Chris Turner wrote:

> On Wed, 16 Feb 2000, Koster, Raph wrote:
> 
> > Fighting words, my friend. I'll leave it to other posters to decide whether
> > or not UO, for example (but I could just as easily pick one of the others)
> > is a more simplistic mud than your average (or even moderately customized)
> > text mud.
> 
> It's not really a case of being more simplistic, it's the fact that video
> games are incredible accessable to the average person.  They're in shops,
> they're reviewed in magazines and on the TV.  It's very easy to stumble
> across a game you've never heard of.
> 
> Where as text (or rather free) muds, on the other hand, suffer from a lack
> of exposure.  To find out that they exist, you have to first get onto the
> 'net and find them or know someone else that has found them.  Very catch 22.  

What does exposure have to do with the essential mud-ness of UO/EQ/AC? Is
Dragonrealms less of a mud, because it gets several thousand simultaneous
players? 
> 
> > Now, if they are capable of being played that way in order to attract more
> > people... does that make them less a mud? Well, no. It arguably makes them a
> > better mud (for that specific purpose).
> 
> True.  It'd be interesting to see just how popular a free mud could get with
> the kind of advertising & exposure of UO though.

Wouldn't even get close. A free mud that is given the advertising and
exposure would just fall on its face. It doesn't have the money to pay for
the bandwidth, the servers, or the support staff. That's not really a jibe
at free muds. If I woke up tomorrow and found Achaea being advertised all
over the place, we'd fall flat on our collective face too. Couldn't handle
all that traffic.

--matt




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