[MUD-Dev] Small scale commercial text MUDs

[Derek Licciardi]

<EdNote: Please do not quote entire messages>

Matt Mihaly wrote:

> 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.

That and gameplay.  Content and Gameplay have to be the two most
significant factors.  I consider content in this regard, both player
community interaction (because ultimately the designers of the game
have promoted the creation of that content even though they may not
have authored it.) and NPC/game system content.

As long as the content is easy to view, absorb and use in the gameplay
of the MUD, you will have a successful MUD.  My only thought about the
technology is that there is a minimum level that must be achieved to
be successful.  A MUD that has good content and gameplay but isn't
fast enough or stable will not fare well.  While the
tolerable/comfortable expectations of user has risen over the past few
years, it is not so extremely high as to provide a barrier to entry
that cannot be overcome by the aspiring commercial MUD developer.  In
sharp contrast to this, I must add that the major graphical MUDs are
experiencing the exact opposite trend in that the entry level
technology has doubled or even tripled in the past two years and will
continue to for the next few years.  Consider that the cost of
producing a quality MMORPG now is somewhere in the 8-10 million range
and you can see that growth.  The original graphical muds were a few
million at the most, some even less.(Meridian 59...)

That being said, there is room for commercial text based muds and they
can be developed by the small time developer.  Given the right
business plan, they may even be able to make a profit if done right.

Just my two cents.
Derek Licciardi

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