[MUD-Dev] Re: Real-world skills

[Chris Lloyd]

-----Original Message-----
From: luke at rocketship.com

> Have to throw in the compulsory "hear, hear" here.  All games
> involve real-world skills.  Period.

That is a very good point. Sort of makes me wonder though, why
aren't MUDs used more for educational purposes? Instead of requiring
the skills of patience, aliasing, and killing, why not require/teach
important things like economics, engineering, and science? Just make
some quests with the appropriate problems.

I do know that a number of transport companies in the UK have used
SimCity as a training exercise. Resource management, maintenance of
a project and leadership (it was done in teams) could all be part of
the fun. Other companies (and all the defence services) run
role-playing scenarios in interviews and training. Perhaps not
everyone is comfortable in front of a computer, typing in a
conversation. Chatrooms full of people using chat-speak and
abbreviations can be frustrating for people who have never
experienced it before.

If you were to create a real-life type MUD, you would have
difficultly with all the extra information that we have access to
IRL. If I were playing a game where I had to broker a business deal,
for example, I would have access to pages and pages of data on the
company, its finances and employees - All of which I'd want to use
to decide what to do. Only by running a MUD for a considerable
amount of time and letting it and the players evolve do you get the
same type of community and background that we have in real commerce.

C.

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev