[MUD-Dev] MMORPGs & MUDs

[Michelle Elbert]

From: "J C Lawrence" <claw at kanga.nu>

>   Is it a game, or a venue where games are either incidental, or
>   where games tend to occur?

I think... the "problem" (wow, I use quotes a lot. :) ) is that it
is viewed as a game... And roleplaying isn't exactly
considered... game like? It is viewed as something a person does
while they're playing on the MMOG... It's the fact that computer
gamers don't necessarily connect roleplaying as part of playing a
computer RPG. So when some character that they know is run by a Real
Person (TM) shows up speaking in rhyme, or with an accent, or
whatever, they don't understand why you would put in the extra
effort. Because in, say, Balder's Gate or Diablo, that is simply not
required of you.

  (Just the other day in Dark Age of Camelot, I went up to an NPC
  and said "Is there a task that is yet undone?" and I got a tell
  from a person telling me that all I have to do is type "/s
  task". I thanked them and told them that I already knew that and
  that I had the phrase on a hotkey, there was a pause and they
  still asked why I went through the extra effort to enter a whole
  sentence. )

Now in another environment it's different. For instance, I used to
subscribe to several White Wolf newsgroups on usenet. And there were
those of us who posted to In character threads, and there were those
who didn't, and then there were those who would post to the non-IC
threads and discuss game mechanics IN CHARACTER.

But people who "talked funny" were not questioned because we were
all part of the same paradigm that says roleplaying is a part of
White Wolf games.  Therefore it came as no surprise when people did
so.

I suppose that the best way to combat this ignorance has already
been found, which is to simply let people know, "This is an RP mud"
or "an RP Server" and go on to explain what that means.

So far, as far as I have seen, explaining what that means involves
giving a simple list of etiquette rules about names and what to talk
about on which chat channels. But at least I would guess you get
fewer people asking you why you're "talking like that"...

Does anybody have any first hand thoughts on how that's working?

-Michelle


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