Nomenclature (was: RE: [MUD-Dev] MUD Coding Staff Structure)

[Michael Tresca]

Brian 'Psychochild' Green posted on Thursday, September 14, 2000 1:05 PM:

> A. Despite claims to the contrary, all these games share common
> elements.  At the very least, we all share common problems (the infamous
> PK problem, volunteers, any topic on this list).  Solutions are
> implementation-dependent, but this was true when the "online game"
> universe was just LP, Diku, Tiny, etc.

Oooh, you went down the ranty path that I wasn't brave enough to tread.
Well okay then, here we are:  We do indeed share the same problems 'cause,
ya know, that's why we're all on the same list.

> B. The term "MUD" has begun to loose it's acronym meaning, kinda like
> the words scuba and sonar.  Only super-geeks know that scuba is
> Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.  (Oops, guilty as
> charged.)  Keep it capitalized to differentiate it from "mud" (IE, water
> + dirt).

I'm still not sure what it means -- Multi-User Dimension sounds good since
we have six planets on RetroMUD -- Multi-User Dungeon makes us sound like a
cheesy dungeon hack (i.e., that we have no cities or outdoor areas, along
with all the negative aspects of hack-and-slash).  I tend to refer to Retro
to non-gamers as an online multi-player game...

> C. The other acronyms are just ugly.  MMOG?  MMORPG?  MMRPG?  PSW?
> MMOPSW?  MMOPSWRPG?  MMOWEIOJCALISJPQQJCXOIJVWKMEWLKJSDOIFJWZNXMCPE?
> How do you pronounce any of these monstrosities?

But I'd never use a silly acronym larger than three letters to refer to it
either (I prefer short silly acronyms).

> E. We remain truer to our heritage.  The number of people wantonly
> ignoring text MUD history is sad, especially given how much the industry
> could use it.

Ignoring MUD history is one thing.  Failing to respect the MUDding community
as a gaming whole that's managed to outlast several role-playing, card, and
computer games is worse.

> [1] As a side note, I've been reading through the 3rd edition rules for
> the venerable Dungeons & Dragons.  Recommended for the amateur designers
> out there.  Interesting system with a LOT of focus on balance.

Side side note: Revised Dungeons & Dragons ended up looking a whole hell of
a lot like quite a few MUDs, including our own.  Just a few things we
noticed:
* Separation of clerical vs. hermetic magic types.
* Nonweapon proficiencies are now called skills.
* Including thief skills as normal skills within the game system.
* Allowing any racial/class combinations rather than level limits.
* Experience points based on the challenge of the monster rather than a flat
rate.
* All character classes get to use their CON to add hit points.
* Infravision replaced with diferent levels of light vision.
* Prestige classes you can take after you take certain other classes.
* A high numerical AC is now a good thing.

The sad thing, of course, is that just as graphical games forget their MUD
roots, these revisions have sharply reminded me that MUDs may be too eager
to forget our RPG roots.  Much as I feel like D&D robbed the MUDding
community (as I'm sure the above similarities are not unique to Retro
alone), I have to face the facts: As Rayzam pointed out to me a few days
ago -- it's a case of convergent evolution.  We made the changes to the
original D&D model that made sense, as did most players with house rules.

D&D just caught up.

Michael "Talien" Tresca
RetroMUD Administrator
http://www.retromud.org
telnet://retromud.org 3000







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