[MUD-Dev] Persistent Worlds

[J C Lawrence]

On Wed, 21 Feb 2001 10:55:58 -0800 
Tess Lowe <tess at havensong.com> wrote:

> This must differ from player to player I imagine. Personally
> speaking, I dislike having to chase around the world teasing out
> back-story. I like for it to be nicely presented on a webpage so I
> can quickly get up to speed on everything that has happened since
> the beginning of that world. I also like to see not only
> backstory, but write-ups of all significant player-instigated
> events. I can't feel part of a community unless I have access to
> the complete shared history and cultural meaning of everything. If
> I play a MUD without reading any history, I not only feel like an
> outsider, I feel like an invader.

Odd that.  When I run into you describe as your preference, I leave
with the impression of a highly plastic fragile construct that I'd
better not touch, or had in fact better ignore, lest is shatter
painfully.  I feel that I would have been better off, especially as
a player, not knowing all that pre-canned and pre-digested (and
therefore pre-interpreted) propaganda (history written by the
(cultural) winners).

> I should put it more bluntly, I choose what MUDs to play
> predominantly based on the quantity and quality of history on
> their website, because I want (and need) to feel part of that
> world/community before I participate in it.

Conversely I look for the promise of such, for the promise of
interesting systems and interesting historical constructs etc before
I'm willing to play.  I don't want to be told.  I want to be teased.
I want the web etc to convincingly suggest that investigation will
be rewarded.

Which I guess plots me against Bartle's suits quite nicely.

--
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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