[MUD-Dev] code base inquiry

[MichelleThompson]

*snip*
[Matthew Mihaly]
> > > Right, you have a job. You can't spend 50 hours a week and employ other
> > > people to work 50 hours a week on your mud. Chances are, if you were
> > > independently wealthy, you'd still not spend 50 hours a week working on
> > > your mud. I don't know what you do, but if you were independently wealthy,
> > > do you really think you'd work as hard, as regularly, and as steadily at
> > > your job as you do now?
> > 
[Richard Woolcock]
> > I'd probably put the same about of time into my hobbies - one of which
> > is building my mud.
> 
Matthew Mihaly wrote:
> Yeah, into your hobbies. So would I. I'd spend all of my time doing that,
> but I wouldn't be spending 50 hours a week on any one hobby.

It may be indeed true that you would not spend 50 hours a week on any one. 
Even though you would not, there are many who do. 

> I certainly
> wouldn't be coming back to my condo at lunch during ski vacations to check
> and make sure I'm not needed for anything on Achaea, and I certainly
> wouldn't be encouraging people to call me any time of the day if there is
> a problem. It's a level of dedication issue really, and hobbies are only
> worthwhile to people while they are having fun doing it. When it loses the
> element of fun, hobbyists tend to quit, whereas commercial players don't,
> out of necessity.
> 
Let me tell you how I got my first imp.  I started out on the mud as a
relatively low-level builder.  I had this idea for an intriguing area that would
be loads of fun to build.  I took down my notes, brainstormed, and then set the
area aside to build areas that the mud needed for opening.  I started teaching
other people to build for the mud.  I just started doing things that needed
done.  When I saw something that needed to be done, that I was not high enough
level to do, I asked the imp to lower the command so that I could do it. 
Instead he promoted me.  Over time, I did more and more for the mud.  I was
promoted one level at a time, until I was an implementor.  I never built the
fun zone for that mud.  There was just too much that had to be done, stuff that
was not fun, but necessary.  I am loyal, hardworking, and very dedicated.  The
only reason I left that mud is because my husband wanted to start developing an
original codebase together.  We have been developing it more slightly more than
a year now.  Yes, some of it has been very fun.  Some of it has not been quite as
fun, but necessary.  Your generailization that hobbyists tend to quit when
the fun runs out is much too broad, and seems to be based more in opinion than
in fact.

Several times, you have argued that on average, commercial muds tend to be
better documented, better planned, and have more dedicated staff ...  The
flaw I perceive in your logic is that you are seperating commercial muds from
muds as a whole.  Commercial muds, are still muds.  Say you spent 50 hours a
week, for 2 years (5200 hours) on your mud.  (This is an arbitrary number).  You
could say that anyone who spent more than 5200 hours on a mud would on average
tend to be better documented, better planned, and have more dedicated staff ...
That would be a more realistic statement.   I am inclined to believe that there
would be more free muds than commercial muds in that groupping.  Being
commercial does not make people more dedicated, nor does it mean that they put
more effort into making a mud.  It just means they are earning money off of it. 

It seems apparent that you consider yourself dedicated, as do I.  However, your
statements, intended or not, have the effect of short-changing many hard working
imps, and immortals merely because they are on free muds instead of commercial
ones.   Personally, I believe that there are many more dedicated people who have
made good free muds, than commercial ones.   That is due to the sheer numbers
of free muds.  I can not state as a fact, however, that the staffs of one or the
other are more dedicated on the average based solely on the fact that they are
free or commercial.  Neither can you.

Michelle Thompson



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