[MUD-Dev] Replacement For MUD Acronym

[Luke Parrish]

How about instead of MUD/MUSH/MUCK/MOO we just use MIF, Multi-player
Interactive Fiction to describe the whole genere? The thing is, MUD
parser is way inferior to most IF games, and the theme tends to be
way less elegant. Imagine if the creators of the Unnkulian
Underworld and The Legend Lives! made a MUD. MUDs are stuck back in
the Colossal Cave days. The whole purpose of MIF should be to get
people together in imaginative, thought-provoking, mature (I'm NOT
referring to sexual, but mental maturity) environments. I know,
MUD/MUSH/MUCK is a sort of joke, but it's soooo old, and it's lost
on newcomers to the concept. In fact, I think it leaves a negative
impression on the type of people that can really write good
fiction. It sounds like something you'd just slap together and add
water.

I came to the MUD community originally looking for a multi-player
text adventure game I could help write. I love quality IF. What I've
found is a monotonous but addicting orc-killing routine that you
have to follow to gain points and gold to level so you can go to the
more interesting areas without getting killed. (I never can recall
killing anyone in, say, the Unnkulian series. In real IF killing is
usually the exception, not the norm.) MOOs, MUSHes, MUCKs, and MUXes
that allow player building tend to lose the realism and suspension
of disbelief even more, and have more primitive parsers. I have yet
to play a MU* I haven't come away with the feeling that I just
wasted a lot of time. And yet, the addiction, the temptation to play
more, in the hopes that something interesting will happen or I can
help someone else have fun, and the knowledge that if I spend enough
time at it, I'll "earn" my way towards the higher levels, is still
there.

If only I could come away from MUDding with a new perspective on
life. Inspired and energized. If only I came away more often with
the idea that I inspired others to live a better life (thus
obligating myself to do likewise). There are so many problems in our
world that are caused by simple ignorance and apathy. Why can't MUDs
be designed to reverse these problems rather than increase them?

Luke

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