[MUD-Dev] What keeps people interested in social muds?

[lynx at lynx.purrsia.com]

On Tue, 28 May 2002, Martin C. Martin wrote:

> I'm heading up a project that's a new way to socialize online.
> It's essentially a 3D virtual nightclub with streaming audio,
> dancing, chat, etc.  (If you're curious: http://www.esconline.org)
 
> Anyway, encouraging people to socialize and keeping them
> interested in a virtual world is the goal of the social mud.  What
> keeps people coming back to social muds?  Why would someone choose
> a social mud over a simple chat room, like IRC?

There are several useful things the MU* offers over IRC:

  - You can describe characters in a persistent way -- the work you
  have done is not lost after it's scrolled off the screen.

  - You can design areas which offer context for your social
  activities.  You can't have ballroom dancing without a ballroom,
  after all.

If you want to keep people coming back, rather than trying it out
for a while and then moving on to something else, you'll probably
need to figure out how you can create 'investment', so people feel
like they'd be abandoning something if they left.

-- Conrad

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