[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs

[Tamzen Cannoy]

At 10:39 PM -0700 7/15/00, J C Lawrence wrote:
>
>This assumes that the entire MUD world is composed of combat
>oriented, or at least combased based games.  That's an extremely
>narrow view.  Also note that the formal definition of "MUD" for this
>list doesn't make that distinction.  See the "What is a MUD?"
>section at:
>
>   http://www.kanga.list/listinfo/mud-dev/
>
>That said, three's a more interesting point underneath this which
>may invalidate your argument from an entirely different quarter.  I
>have long suspected that the total number of Tiny-* clan players out
>there outnumber the total number of PvP MUD players out there (not
>counting the overlap) by a significant margin/percentage.  I have
>absolutely no formal evidence, just a gut feel from development rate
>of the Tiny-* clan, *MOO and derived bases, web site popularity and
>maintenance levels, and apparrent population stability (lotsa long
>term players).
>

I wouldn't be surprised. I don't speak up on here much cause frankly 
so little of what gets said on this has any relevance to me as a 
player and once-admin. I'm a RPer, as in multiplayer interactive 
theatre. I started out 10 years ago on TinyMuck.

I don't play the commercial games cause 1) I'm a Mac user and nearly 
totally forgotten for that reason, 2) I get motion sick with 3D first 
person games and 3) I get everything I want from the Mushes I've been 
active on. Completely consensual, no level RP only games. I think the 
longest I've played on one game is 3-4 years, but on places like 
AmberMush and Pern 8 or 10 years is common.

These places have tremendous stickiness, because they are emotionally 
satisfying and endless. There is no game defined goal except to have 
fun and interact with others. Now a lot of people have their own 
goals to amass power or points or abiltities, but  even when you say 
top out in some area, there are so many more to go off and explore.

I don't see anyone in the commercial but possibly Skotos (and even 
Chris admits they can't start with things that Mushers expect) who is 
playing to this audience. Asheron's Call as originally designed when 
we saw it in '95 might have been, but they had to drop the cool RP 
stuff to focus on the PvP and killing stuff.

If it's true that there are more of us out there who are quite happy 
in their text based worlds of astonishing literary beauty, and won't 
settle for less, how do these people get included in the game/virtual 
world markets?
--


Tamzen



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