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

[Steven Kaskinen]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matthew Mihaly [mailto:the_logos at achaea.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 1:53 PM
> 
> On Wed, 13 Sep 2000, Steven Kaskinen wrote:
> > 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.
 
Exactly my point.  Urban areas are not simply towns with a larger
population.  MMUDs (MMOG) are also not simply MUDs with a large population
as well.

There are certainly pockets of communities on MMUDs (MMOGs) much like
pockets of communities in Large Cities.  But there is also more interaction
between those communities as well...this in itself is different than a small
town or a small MUD where it is possible that there is only one community.
Things such as player balancing then becomes more feasible than in a MMUD
where striking a balance between a constantly changing dynamic of players
and community types becomes very difficulty if not completely unfeasible.

While a law might work and function properly in a town...that same law might
not function at all in a city.  Same thing goes for MUDs and MMUDs.  While a
method for gameplay, player balancing, economy, grief player handling,
etc...might function well in a MUD it might fail horribly in a MMUD
situation.  Its not just a matter of the number of players being the only
change but that people's behaviors change in a larger community as well.
Much of that extending from anonymity but there is also a crowd dynamic that
goes on as well.

Before someone tries to bring up the idea that many small towns in say the
same state equals the same thing as a city with many separate communities, I
wish to disagree ahead of time.  :)  The amount of interaction is the key.
In a city is highly likely that people from those pocket communities would
interact on a very frequent basis...the same could not be said of many small
towns in the same state.  Sure there may be some interaction, but just
because many of the same people play Quake3 and UO does that mean that they
are the same gaming community?  Relevance and frequency of interaction isn't
there.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matthew Mihaly [mailto:the_logos at achaea.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 1:53 PM
> 
> On Wed, 13 Sep 2000, Steven Kaskinen wrote: 
> > 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.

Not everything scales linearly either.  Just looking at percentages doesn't
always tell a whole story.

I guess I will go on to beat an analogy into the ground and continue on with
the Rural/Urban picture.  In a very large city its possible for specialty
stores to exist, survive, and thrive...you might be able to have something
like a Corvette-only Auto Parts store and actually do good business there.
Meanwhile, that same store would never have a hope of surviving in a small
rural area.  By the same token, it also probably wouldn't survive in a
medium size Urban area either.  Even if percentage-wise, the medium size
area was the same increase from the small town, as the Large Urban area was
from the Medium size one...something's still are not possible and different
opportunities exist.  They ARE different in more ways than just population.

By the same token though.  What does work in MUD might very well work in a
MMUD as well.  They ARE very similar after all.  I just don't want it to
become a blind assumption that just because something works in a MUD that it
would also work just fine in a MMUD (MMOG).  While I don't think you said
that exactly...your statement of "Same thing, just bigger scale." could
certainly lend itself to thinking in that way.

The number of people playing changes more than just the number of people
playing.  It changes the world you design to accommodate them, it changes
the possibilities of gameplay and it also changes the way in which people
behave (if nothing more than MOB-mentality).  Similar it is...the same it is
not.

- Steve



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