[MUD-Dev] Geometric content generation

[Koster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad
> Peter Tyson wrote:
 
>> There's -no- good tools in any graphical mud I know of that
>> allows someone to be Mayor, for example, and set up events and
>> paste notices around town.  All content creation must be done by
>> players using the web, email, icq etc.  To me this is a great
>> pity.
 
> Hmm... It was possible in most early graphical MUDs. Regenesis
> allowed you to do anything (LP), M59 had bulletin boards in
> multiple locations, Habitat had a major if I remember correctly,
> and I am sure you can find many other examples.

UO had bulletin boards, but people preferred the web to the in-game
boards.  Of course, Dark Ages has an extremely evolved in-game
politics system.

> However, it is important to realize that the WEB IS CONTENT in
> current large scale MUDs. (MMPORG)

An excellent point, Ola. One of the things that most strikes me as a
difference between muds and the commercial MMOs is how externalized
the community is in the latter. Web boards, guilds that hop games,
IRC channels, etc, all surround the game in a constellation and
greatly enhance it. In fact, there's significant power to be
harnessed there, because most of the users of the big games aren't
even aware of this extraordinarily rich community, which potentially
could lead to far greater retention.

There's also no game mechanics that recognize valuable contributions
to this ancillary community. As a result, there's a missing feedback
loop for an extremely important and desirable activity.

-Raph

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