[MUD-Dev] Where are we now?

[Ronan Farrell]

On Sun, 29 Apr 2001, Greg Munt wrote:
> From: Ronan Farrell <rfarrell at parthus.com>

>> The mud is stagnant and I mentioned that I was interested in making
>> changes.  The reaction was unbelievable.  I've been innundated with
>> support, offers of help, suggestions.  Maybe free muds have had a
>> rough time, but also maybe with free muds you feel that you can be
>> part of the mud rather than just another customer.

> That's a cynical view. That's not to say that my post wasn't
> cynical,

I missed the cynicism in it...

> One thing to note is that I will be writing it in Java. Comment on
> that, as the mood takes you.

Java fine, I don't believe that people need to have opinions on
languages, they either do the job or they don't.


> 1. You assume that a free mud can't have graphics, and that a
> commercial mud must have graphics. That is definitely not the
> case. I know that both Achaea (whose idea WAS that name, anyway?) 
> and The Eternal City don't feature a GUI. If you don't assume it,
> you certainly imply it; well, that's how I read your post, anyway.

A free mud generally is generally not a graphical mud (though GUI may
exist) because

  a) the volunteer organisers have not got the artistic ability

  b) the volunteers don't have the coding ability or time and attention
     to produce a fully graphical system

  c) most free muds try to go for content of description and story
     over something that is pretty to look at, because that is where
     there strenghts lie.  The $20/month server and free code to produce
     your idea of how a mud-world could be

So don't get me wrong, I see lots of benefits to a graphical mud but I
do believe that it would take an exceptional design team to produce
even the simplest of complete systems and that any such team with the
time and effort to do that has probably got the makings of a
commercial mud.  Oh and commercial muds are not always graphical but
graphical muds are quite often commercial.


Ronan



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