[MUD-Dev] Medievia interview

[J C Lawrence]

On Wed, 7 Feb 2001 21:34:05 -0800 
Koster, Raph <rkoster at verant.com> wrote:

> Joystick101.org recently did an interview with Vryce of
> Medievia. URL is:

>
> http://www.joystick101.org/?op=displaystory&sid=2001/1/26/182330/533

For the archives:

--<cut>--

10 years ago, a group of role-players who also happened to have some
interest and skill with programming got together. They started
tinkering with early DIKUMUD code and Medievia MUD was born. While
the game has gone through numerous re-fits and versions, the
principle has remained the same. The game has always been a fantasy
role-playing game in the spirit of Dungeons and Dragons. There are
four main classes of character: warrior, mage, thief and cleric;
with players having the ability (if they prove worthy) to
multi-class. Working together or alone, the players travel across
the sweeping map that is Medievia killing, exploring, fulfilling
quests, trading and socializing.

Today, Medievia has grown into a completely different animal from
what it started as 10 years ago. It has more features, more players
and more possibilities. Oh, and with over 4 million rooms, it may in
fact be the largest MUD (and even possibly the largest game of any
kind) in existence today.


Medievia: The World's Largest MUD?  

Influential designers like Raph Koster argue that as MMORPGs and
online gaming become more popular, game designers can benefit from
becoming more familiar with the history and design of muds. (Some)
mud imms have a wealth of knowledge in dealing with issues like
player relations and mud addiction (although some muds do it better
than others). It's in this spirit that we talked to Vryce, the owner
and developer of Medievia, one of the most successful muds to date.

Background Joystick101: What are some of the demographics of
Medievia? How many rooms, zones, registered players, average number
of players per day?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: Medievia has 369 areas taking up 50,295
custom rooms. The wilderness is 4 million rooms created by the
game. We have 26,000 users who have logged in within the last six
months. The only daily stat I tally now are high water marks. Our
average for this week was 601 people on at once. It has been online
since 1991.

Joystick101: How did you first get involved in MUDs? How did you
first get involved in MUD development? What were some of the
obstacles?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause:Way back in the days I ran a BBS called
Programmers Corner. I ended up programming some killer doors and
even a chess engine you could play against. In 1989 some of the
first multi-player text games started becoming popular. I played all
of those early games and of course was interested in creating my
own. The obstacles back then were the lack of decent debugging
tools. It was a real hassle to create a mud that was reliable. Our
goal in the beginning was simply to make the first reliable mud.

Joystick101: How do you manage the time between Medievia, family,
work and any other responsibilities you may have?  Where does
Medievia fit in the grand scheme of things?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: You cannot create something like Medievia or
my other venture, iDayo.com (--where, according to their website, he
is the Senior V.P. & Chief Technology Officer--), unless you are
willing to have no outside life. I have pretty much worked 13-18
hour days since 1990 on this stuff. It is all very much worth the
effort and sacrifices. I have a stack of 'Thank you/Medievia is
great' letters almost a foot high.



 Medievia Login

MUD Management

Joystick101: How many people are currently working on Medievia? How
do you manage them?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: We have 136 gods ATM. I basically manage 2
people who manages 10 people who manage the rest. It is hard to
believe how well all of this happens when you consider that all of
these 136 people live all over the world. We have project management
software built for the game and procedures to make it all run smooth
and efficiently.

Joystick101: What types of skills do you look for in developers?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: Honor is the first thing I look for. We need
gods that can represent the game in a professional manner and not
get an EGO about it. I look for people I can trust and people who
are willing to sacrifice for the game. Being a god on Medievia is a
great thing to be but it can also often be a thankless job.

Joystick101: Medievia has always been free... how do you kep it
going? Do you fund it?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: The fact that the game is still free is one
of the things I am most proud of. In 1994 the expenses were very
hard for me to handle. We eventually started excepting
donations. Today donations cover all of our costs. The only thing
the gods need to sacrifice now is their time and mental energy. To
answer the question of how I fund it; The players do. It is a great
thing. People truly love and support Medievia. It is a game built by
the players for the players.

Social & Cultural Issues

Joystick101: If you had to characterize the types of activities that
users can partake, what would they be?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: We have killers, traders, leaders, followers,
socialites, dragon hunters, town people, clan people, mages, thiefs,
warriors, clerics, multi-classers, heros, avatars, auctioneers,
gods... Medievia is a true world with much to offer no matter what
your personal make-up is or your needs.

Joystick101: I know that over the years, all types of relationships
have blossomed (and I assume, fizzled) through Medievia, would you
care to elaborate on any that come to mind?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: I met my own wife on Medievia. Many people
have met and married people they met on the game. It never ceases to
amaze me how much you can learn about someone whilst playing the
game. Medievia is a friendship creation world at its core. That is
why people come to play and never leave. Over the past decade we
have had over a hundred gods that have come and gone. Some I had to
fire, which is never easy but its all for the good of the game.

Joystick101: How do you characterize your role with the players? How
has it changed over the years? Has your role changed now that there
are significantly more players than there were when you started?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: In the beginning I handled all of the
Medievia email myself. Like the true devoted idiot I was then, today
I still do it. I answer 20-100 emails a day. Some days when we
change some major rule or add a new feature some people do not like
I get slammed with 100 emails. When you email Everquest the owner
does not respond. It is my goal to keep Medievia as the family
oriented site it is today. It is my goal to always listen to players
as usually they are the ones with the brilliant ideas.



 Medievia in Game

Joystick101: Would you classify Medievia as a community of players? 
Why?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: Medievia has a closed player-driven
economy. It's playability and rules are all focused towards player
interaction. The game is full of towns and clans of people who form
and make friends. Yes, Medievia is a community of players. Take a
look at our player picture page on our website to get the idea.

Joystick101: I assume that when Medievia was first started, there
was a vision for how players would interact... has it turned out the
way you had hoped?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: It has turned out much better than I had
hoped. We are a heavily player kill kind of game and thats a great
way for player interaction. FEAR is what it is about. Nothing is
more fun when playing a game then fear. Us coder types have yet to
create a code controlled mobile that can compare with the
intelligence of a human. Human vs Human play in a game as complex
and deep as Medievia can be a truly memorable experience. When you
add Clan vs Clan it gets even more interesting. The game becomes an
ever living soap opra of player driven events.

Joystick101: What types of features does Medievia have to support
collaboration, communication and interaction?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: We only provide the communication in the
game. Many players take it a step farther with voice over the net
appliances and IP text communication.

Joystick101: I've heard people say that players learn how to MUD
from other players... was this expected? What are your thoughts on
this (please interpret any way that you want here... Im curious to
know what you think about newbie helpers to clans banding together
to eq runs...etc...)

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: I LOVE IT. One of our strengths compared to
other mud like games is that on Medievia you have tons of friendly
clans and avatars to help you as you get started. Lets face it, the
game is seriously complex. It starts off easy enough but even if you
have played every day for five years, you have not seen the whole
game, it is just too big. You will not have learned it all; thats
impossible. Player to player help is the only real way to gain true
experience in such an atmosphere.  We do a lot to help this with our
rules and avatar policies.

Joystick101: Since the Internet really took off in the early 1990's,
many people have become addicted to the Internet. Do you think this
has happened to your users? Do you think it is still happening? What
do you feel is the responsibility (if any) of the MUD and the
developers?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: Medievia addiction is a serious problem for a
small percentage of our users. Most are in denial because they have
so much fun in the game and its closed environment. We have a page
dedicated to this: http://www.medievia.com/addiction.html Medievia
is a way to escape for some people. For others its a way to hide
from real life. Some players have 100 true friends in the game that
they have never spoken to with their voice yet have almost no real
life friends. It can be a serious problem. On the other hand
Medievia has many benefits. It is very easy for a kid to move out of
his house and into college and become a loner. Medievia does a lot
to help these people make friends. I do not think there is a game in
existence that spongers as many real life get-togethers (GTG) then
we do. I love watching dozens of people come to these events and
meet each other face to face for the first time.

Joystick101: In terms of the social, I know that Medievia has had
numerous 'reallife' get togethers... how do you think these have
impacted the society of Medievia? What were some of your impressions
of some of these people when you met them for the first time.

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: I love the GTG's. I go to every gtg within
100 miles of where I live just because they are so much fun. The
impact on the game is essential for it to be the kind of community
that is beneficial for the players. Most Medievians have gone out of
their way to meet other Medievians because we talk about it so much
and sponsor so many GTG's. The game is not REAL but the players are
and their friendships and interactions are. That is what Medievia is
all about and why we are still here and still growing after ten
years.

Future thoughts and other issues

Joystick101: What are some of the future plans for Medievia?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: I am currently working on the next version
which is my biggest undertaking of my life. The new version will
have the wilderness ALIVE with MobFactions which have more AI built
in than even the latest RTS games. I cannot wait to see how clans
deal with armies of intelligent critters attacking their towns and
trade lines.

Joystick101: In the past, Medievia has been fairly innovative in
some of the features (such as wilderness and trading, mob
tracking...etc...), what is your future vision for Medievia and
mudding in general?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: The future can only be one thing. I need
Medievia to be a real world in that when you log in each day, you
participate in a real world of events. MobFactions will get people
out of the zones and into the wilderness and holosections. It must
be like logging into a book where you are a character and the story
is there for you to change. It is being coded so I will not be able
to predict what will happen. That is so cool. One day the game may
decide to have an army of Trolls attempt to surround the city of
Medievia itself, or perhaps it creates a bunch of vampire
houses. Part of the MF module is the new DM (dungeon master)
module. This will allow formations of players to decide to have the
DM module watch over them. This module will affect the world around
them for the sake of having more fun. Perhaps it decides to create a
faerie town in the path you are taking as you go cross-country in
search of adventure. Perhaps it helps you when you need it by
creating some weather. I cannot talk too much about these new
modules in fear of the competition. The next version of Medievia
will turn some heads at all muds and places like Everquest.

Joystick101: In the past few years, graphical MUDS (such as
Everquest, Ultima Online) have become very popular. What impact, if
any, do you see these having on text-based MUDS such as Medievia? Do
you feel pressure from these games to add new things? Do you even
feel like you are in competition with them? Are text-based, like
Medievia, better than the graphical MUDS? Why?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: These games are pretty cool. I think that
once true broadband is here and you can play these games with real
live voice they will be worth it. Right now their game play is
pitiful and their rules and the way you communicate is archaic at
best. How can you make friends on these games? They are competitors
and I treat them that way. Luckily I have a loaded deck of cards
here as I do not have to worry about sound or graphics. When I code
I code pure logic and cool playability changes. I cannot see how
they could ever keep up. We are still pulling away with new
features. How can they have 72,842 unique objects like we do or
25,601 unique critters? How can they ever have a game as social as
Medievia? Just like many books are better than the movie, text games
will be better than the graphical games.

Joystick101: Are text-based, like Medievia, better than the graphical
MUDS? Why?

Michael 'Vryce' Krause: I love your last question. We have been here
for ten years. During that time graphical games have truly become
quite amazing. I love playing Quake III and now Q3TA. Many of our
players have played and loved Everquest, but, only for a few
months. After you play a game like that your brain does not even
notice the graphics or the sound does it?  You block it out. A game
is about playability and immersion. Who is more immersed in their
game: 1) A player in everquest sitting in some spooky castle 2) A
player in Medievia sitting in some spooky castle The FEELING is the
same but the graphics can never portray the detail of a text
game. While I have a developer spend 20 minutes writing a killer
room description they have a team spend days creating the same
area. When you read the description your brain fills in all of the
details for you. You are THERE in that spooky castle talking
frantically with your formation or clan or friends. In Everquest its
just a bunch of guys running around looking for something to kill.
--<cut>--

--
J C Lawrence                                       claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                          http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/
--=| A man is as sane as he is dangerous to his environment |=--
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