[MUD-Dev] code base inquiry

[Richard Woolcock]

Matthew Mihaly wrote:
> 

The majority of this discussion between you and myself has been snipped, 
because it's starting to get repetitive.  I can see where you're coming
from and don't disagree with it - but I don't think we'll ever share the
same views as our motivations are completely different.

> it sometimes ticks off the players, who would prefer we spend more time 
> doing exactly what they want. I'd get too bored running Achaea that way, 
> however. I have to remain amused as well as the players. That, to me, is 
> the great thing about running a small commercial world. As long as you 
> can maintain a certain level of quality, you can make money and still have 
> reasonable freedom to do what you want with it (of course, this assumes 
> that some segment of the mudding population shares your idea of what is 
> fun, but that is not unlikely I would say).

So basically you're a half-way-house between purely hobby and purely
commercial?

> > > Not arguing that, and I have no problem with quality free muds. If you
> > > want to cater to an audience of 100, go for it. Power to you.
> >
> > Actually I am catering to an audience of 1.  If anyone else wants to play,
> > more power to them - they're welcome to join me.
> 
> Ok, fair enough, but I guess to me, muds are about community, with most of
> the content being provided by the players. You just need to provide them
> with constructive ways to provide interesting content. I know that Achaea,
> for instnace, would be deathly boring with only 1 person.

I cater to an audience of 1 - but that doesn't mean my mud only has one
player.  Certainly if that were the case it would lose out on the main
purpose of a MUD - to be Multi-User.  The difference is that the players
who come to my mud do so because they playing within my definition of what
makes a good mud - not because I've tried to lure them in by making the
mud follow their own definition.

> > > My only reasoning for thinking that codebases should remove commercial
> > > restrictions is that money provides the best motivator
> >
> > And this is the root of our disagreement.  I make plenty of money from
> > my real life job - creating the mud is my hobby and my escape from the
> > pressures of other people.  You make your money from your mud.
> 
> 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?

I'd probably put the same about of time into my hobbies - one of which
is building my mud.

KaVir.



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