[MUD-Dev] "The Artisan's Hands" - Storytelling tools

[Michael Tresca]

Brandon J. Van Every posted on Wednesday, August 07, 2002 5:10 AM

> They certainly haven't reached me, a game designer who has
> downloaded plenty of demos the past 4 years, but hasn't been
> particularly interested in MUDs until recently.  I don't think
> you're appreciating how rarefied the MUD audience is.  You don't
> walk into EBX and see endcap displays for MUDs.  Not unless
> they're EQ, UO, or Baldur's Gate.

That is, of course, because very few MUDs are advertising for
players who aren't already MUDders.  Medievia's advertising was a
big deal because it didn't target the established MUDding playerbase
-- it went beyond that.

RetroMUD, for example, has been advertising on ENworld.org and
Keenspot.com -- both of those Web sites are not for MUDders, but do
attract gamers who MIGHT try our game.  The question is, does the
MUD want someone who has never played a MUD before?

The answer, usually, is that most MUDs really don't.  Although they
want new players, by far the easiest type of player to assimilate is
one who knows generic MUD commands, character creation, etc.  Very
few MUDs have established the exhaustive process of teaching the
game from the ground up.  And sadly, very few players have the
tolerance for helping new players.  Sometimes, they actively
discourage them, either through actions (like ignoring them) or
words (like "Stop asking stupid questions!").

> I've got 1 issue of "MUD Companion" because I came to your guys'
> dinner at GDC 2002.  Otherwise I would have never heard of the
> publication.

RetroMUD didn't host any dinners.

> If mainstream game titles are the point of comparision - and I
> think that's fair if you're griping about how much the games
> industry does or doesn't know about MUD development and history -
> this advertizing is miniscule.  Nobody hears about X, and that's
> why nobody knows that X has been done before.

No disagreement from me there.  But originally, the point was that
advertising campaigns don't exist.  They certainly do.  And I
believe they do a good job of distinguishing one MUD from another.
Distinguishing one MUD from a MMORPG is a whole different issue,
which primarily revolves around money.  UGO's advertising skyrockets
to the $25,000 range.  RetroMUD can't (and will probably never) be
able to afford that.

> Get real.  Nobody knows about this stuff.

While I find the term "get real" ironic in a discussion about
virtual games, I submit that most MUDs believe that they folks who
"know about this stuff" are the ones they want to play their game,
which are other MUDders, not other gamers in general.  The
implication is that all MUDs WANT completely new players and from my
experience, that isn't true.

Mike "Talien" Tresca
RetroMUD Administrator
http://www.retromud.org/talien



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