[MUD-Dev] MUD Coding Staff Structure

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Wed, 13 Sep 2000, Steven Kaskinen wrote:

> > From: Matthew Mihaly [mailto:the_logos at achaea.com]
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2000 1:37 PM
> >
> > Hear hear. I don't see why people insist on calling big 
> > graphical games
> > something other than muds anyway. Same thing, just bigger scale.
> 
> Very similar...but the larger scale of player base does indeed change some
> things.
> 
> Having a larger player base means a more dynamic player interaction...hence
> player balance between the different player types is more difficult to
> achieve...if even possible at all.
> 
> Larger scale means less of a sense of community.
> 
> Don't believe it?  Then explain to me that an urban area has the same sense
> of community as a rural area.  That Cities are no different than Town except
> the fact that they have more people.

No actually, I don't believe it. Urban areas are not simply towns with a
larger population. Generally they encompass far greater diversity of
income, of race, of religion, and generally of point of view. Go to a
small town that has this kind of severe diversity and see how much
community there is between the two sides. Likewise, go to various
ethnically-bonded areas of big cities, and notice how much community there
is in them.

Muds, on the other hand, tend to differ population-wise, mainly in scale.
I'll warrant that if I went around and took a random sampling of people
playing small text muds, and a random sampling of people playing
Everquest, the results would be very similar. There aren't any fundamental
differences that I can see, just ones of scale.

 
> The point that MUDs and MMOGs are the exact same animal can't be made in my
> opinion.

I'd have to disagree. If they are to be called by different names because
of a difference of scale, then should bigger text muds like Achaea (or,
more to the point, Dragonrealms and Gemstone) be called different things
than some Diku with 5 players online? After all, the difference in scale
between that and Achaea, and Achaea and Everquest, is actually fairly
similar percentage-wise.

--matt




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