[MUD-Dev] MUDs vs. MMUDs (was MUD Coding Staff Structure)

[Steven Kaskinen]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gmiller at classic-games.com [mailto:gmiller at classic-games.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 5:25 AM
> 
> Pickup trucks and tractor trailer trucks carry loads of
> different sizes and handle very differently. They even
> require a different driver's license. Yet
> they're both trucks. Nobody refers to the latter as a 
> VLMWVTINAT (Very Large
> Multi-Wheeled Vehicle That Is Not A Truck).

Language is a wonderfully vague thing...and often a poor method of
communicating thoughts among different people.  Hence why sometimes
Analogies (even if sometimes not exact in nature) can be so
enlightning...picture painting a thousand words and all that.

My issue was not based in the use of terminolgy.  If people want to more
clearly or vaguely define the terms of MUD and MMOG around...that's part of
the dynamic nature of language.  I was only using the terms as has been
commonly used of late...in that MUD typically has denoted smaller population
games and MMOG has denoted much large population games.  Very true in the
fact that both share enough traits to be called MUDs but it gets very
tiresome typing out a MUD with a large population vs. MMOG.

For the sake of wanting to be a lazy typist...I'll use the following
terms...MUD as a smaller population game, and MMUD for a larger population
MUD, with the extra M standing for Massive.  Perhaps that will at least get
rid of the issues surrounding what to call them.

My real issue was the statement that Matthew Mihaly made that MUDs and MMUD
(or MMOGs) are the same with the only exception being SIZE.  I do not
believe this to be true.  The size alone changes the nature of the game
itself in multiple ways.  My analogy of a city was meant to convey that.

The analogy of a Truck you give is a good example.  While I don't call large
trucks VLMWVTINAT's I do typically refer to Pickups and just Trucks and
Semi-trucks and just Semi's.  Additionally while they have much the same
functions, (the ability to haul cargo, useable for transportation, and both
use fuel) I might be able to do 360's in a pickup truck out in a empty
parking lot...but I don't think its possible to do that with a semi.
Although it might be fun to try.  :)

Not wanting to beat an analogy into the ground (a picture can only say so
much)...I still don't think it can be said that just because X works in a
MUD that it would function the same in a MMUD (MMOG).  The converse would
also be true as well.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gmiller at classic-games.com [mailto:gmiller at classic-games.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 5:25 AM
> 
> Big muds and little muds aren't the same, but when you look 
> at the bigger
> picture of gaming, they're the same basic type of game. 
> Compare them to Pac-Man
> or WarCraft--suddenly, the differences look relatively small.

Certainly.  By the same token, Diablo shares quite a bit in common with
Everquest, certainly more than either do with Need for Speed.

But what works in Diablo might not fly in EQ.  By the same token...there is
much that works in one that also might work in the other.

For example, it might be entirely possible in a game such as EQ (or
something similar) when a group comes to a specific dungeon, lets say
Unrest, that the game spawns a whole seperate dungeon specifically for that
group of 6, 8, 10, 12 players.  Those players can then "DO" the dungeon,
proceed through it in a fashion without MOBs spawning in behind them and
have it seem a more "RPG-like" experience.

Diablo does this now on Battle.net.  Very similar...you get a different
spawn for each are by starting up a new game...the different groups get
their own dungeons in a sense.  Even though they are not the same type of
game in many ways, there is no reason that idea's cannot be brought across.
(Maybe some MUD I don't know of does this already.)

Of course then you bring up other issues of economy balancing, item
generation, etc...so maybe the idea won't work.

My only point is that just because something DOES work in a game with fewer
people doesn't mean that it will have the same affects in a similar game
with alot more people.  Assuming that it all would just work out seems like
too much Blind-faith to me...and hoping you get lucky.

- Steve



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