[MUD-DEV] a shrinking pool of players?

[Chris Turner]

On Thu, 17 Feb 2000, Matthew Mihaly wrote:

> 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? 

Oh, I think that UO/EQ/AC etc are muds, but that it's unfair to compare
the size of their playerbases with free muds.  It's like comparing
McDonalds with some bloke at the local village fair cooking burgers.

> > > 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.

I guess - although most free muds would hit max connections long before
they got close to saturating their link.

Chris
--
christ at rd.bbc.co.uk   #include <stddisclaimer.h>   http://www.fysh.org/~maddy

   "So this is really me? A no-style gimbo with teeth druids could use as a
       place of worship" - Duaine Dibley (Red Dwarf - "Back to Reality")




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