[MUD-Dev] Small scale commercial text MUDs

[Emil Eifrém <emil.eifrem@windh.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matt Mihaly [mailto:the_logos at www.achaea.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2001 5:12 AM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Small scale commercial text MUDs
> 

[snip]

> Seriously, if you're not going to aim high, you don't _need_ a great
> driver. Content, content, content. I can tell you right now that not
> a single accolade Achaea has ever gotten has a bit to do with our
> technology. Although I have a very competent CTO now, I had to teach
> myself to program (badly) to originally write Achaea, and the code
> and the technology is sub-standard. Does it matter at the scale we
> operate? Some, but it's not crucial. Content makes a good MUD, not
> technology.

Very true. At work, my boss keeps yelling at me that it doesn't matter
to the customers how good my object design is unless it is immediately
reflected in the presentation layer (we write a web application). And
yea, I believe that most times in 'business programming,' technology
*doesn't* matter or is at least less important than content, layout
and user interface. I believe this is true for the mud world as well
-- just look at the astounding success of the DIKU server base in the
90s, using technology that must be considered quite primitive.

Slightly OT (at least off-thread) and just out of curiousity, you
mention a CTO... how much staff can you reasonably support with
Achaea's current playerbase / revenue stream? I'm steadily working
towards convincing myself to dare an endeavor into the land of
commericalizing my text-based mud and trying to earn a living by doing
what I love the most, and Achaea seems to be a successful example. I
realize that for my small-scale approach it will be important to keep
the staff requirements low, which means focusing on creating a game
that encourages players to admin themselves in order to minimize
staff. How many people does Alchaea LLC currently employ? Do they have
"competetive salaries," ie are you able to employ people other than
old-friends-that-loves-mudding-anyway?

-EE [emil at eifrem.com]
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev