[MUD-Dev] Semi Graphical Muds

[the_logos at www.achaea.com]

On Tue, 30 Jan 2001, Ben Chambers wrote:

> From: <the_logos at www.achaea.com>

>> I think either I misunderstand what you're saying, or you
>> misunderstand the nature of ADOM. ADOM is not a mud in any sense of
>> the word. It's a rogue-like single player game.
 
> I mean I think that it is what the RPG is supposed to be.  It is
> fairly immersive if you know enough about it.

Ahh. I consider hack n' slash at the bottom end, sophistication-wise,
in terms of what multiplayer RPGs can be. I don't like the way they
are basically just slightly altered versions of the single-player
mentality.

 
>> I also have to say that ascii graphics are most certainly not what
>> a graphical mud should be. I, personally, want the best graphics
>> possible. To me, ascii-graphical adventures are completely dead
>> (well, not just to me). There's still room for text-based muds and
>> maybe even other types of text-based games, but why try to use
>> ascii graphics as the core of a game when you can use 3-d or even
>> 2-d graphics that will look much nicer.

> Graphics take more space, and hence more bandwidth.  They are also
> harder to implement, not as easy to make cross platfrom, and much
> more difficult to make.  Ascii is faster and more efficient, and
> allows for more of the processor and space to be devoted to game
> play developments

Space doesn't equal bandwidth. Graphics are stored on the end-user's
machine.

Ascii is faster and more efficient mainly because it is such low
resolution, meaning that a screen of it cannot communicate very much
information. A picture is worth much more than a thousand words. Ascii
graphics can communicate even less information than a text mud, in
fact, due to the sophisticated coding mechanism (language) of a text
mud.

Ascii graphics may be faster (though I'm dubious that they'd use less
bandwidth/player than Everquest does, for instance), but they are also
primitive and you're very limited in what can be done with them.

--matt

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