[MUD-Dev] Chatting in MMPORPGs

[Lee Sheldon]

-----Original Message-----
From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf Of
Peter Tyson
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2001 5:47 AM
To: 'mud-dev at kanga.nu'
Subject: [MUD-Dev] Chatting in MMPORPGs

> Since AO's release I've been thinking a lot about how people chat
> in a graphical mud. On the one hand you have the Ultima Online
> version where all the text pops above the players head. On the
> other you have the EQ model where text is solely placed in the
> chat window.

> Somewhere in between you have games which have a speech bubble
> over someone's head as they talk or AOs 'glowing head' when you
> send a message/chat.

> Now, which do you lot like and why?

UO's chat system with the text above a player's head (or some
variation thereof), easily associating the speech with a specific
avatar, would seem at first glance to be the most natural way of
handling chat in a graphical MUD.  Unfortunately I'm not a touch
typist.  When I'm typing I look at the keyboard.  As a result I miss
chunks of other people's speech in UO.  It's faded out by the time I
look up.  Particularly if I have a longer thought than a brief
comment to add.  It can reach the point where people think I'm
either rude or too dim-witted to talk to.  This is not a problem I
experienced in EQ with the scrolling text box that was easy to find
and allowed me to scroll back.  It's the primary reason why I
basically just solo in UO and don't like to go to towns.  It has
altered the way I wanted to play the game, and not in a way I like.
Maybe everybody else online is a touch typist these days, and my
predicament is uniquely my own, but it'll probably end in my giving
up on UO sooner rather than later.

Lee

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