[MUD-Dev] Girl appeal (was: Boys and Girls)

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

From: "Sasha Hart" <Sasha.Hart at directory.reed.edu>
> On Thu, 14 Feb 2002 13:36:42 -0800
> Caliban Tiresias Darklock <caliban at darklock.com> wrote:
>> [Sasha]
>>> [Caliban]

>>>> (It might also be argued that there are NO options in MUD
>>>> development on most servers -- you can only tell it to type
>>>> text on a limited number of available events, but no matter
>>>> what you do it will only ever type text.)

>>> And most games ever devised just boil down to a bunch of mouse
>>> clicking or hitting of keyboard buttons anyway.

>> You're trying to compare "many causes, few effects" to "few
>> causes, many effects". They don't really compare.

> In this case, I think I am right. ;)

You can't *be* right, any more than you can be wrong. You're saying
"all you PUT IN is a mouse click" and I'm saying "all you GET OUT is
some text" -- which is a very different thing. You can't make a
valid comparison there.  They're totally different transactions.

> "You can only tell it to type text on a limited number of
> available events" seems problematic to me as a description of the
> design space for text games

I think we have a very clear difference of interpretation on the
word "design" here.

You're apparently talking about people designing a
game. Programmers, admins, and builders, on the average MUD.

I'm talking about *players* designing their own personalised objects
and locations *within* the game.

If you have the source code, or a wizbit, or a builder login, sure,
you can do any number of things -- but if you're a standard
unprivileged player, you have a MUCH smaller available design
space. The wheels might have all kinds of access to fantastic tools
with which to design, but none of that matters to the playerbase at
large.

There is nothing stopping the playerbase at large from *becoming*
wheels on the average MUD, of course, any more than there is
anything stopping you from being a professional musician... except,
of course, an education in the appropriate skills.


_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev