[MUD-Dev] Requirements for MM (was Complexities ofMMOGServers )

[Koster]

From: Ted L. Chen

> Of course, I haven't even touched the requirement of real-time
> (not just simultaneous) interaction yet.  Of what you mentioned,
> chat clients, ala MIRC are the only ones that would come close to
> a MUD.  I'm a little fuzzy about why MIRC is, or why it isn't a
> MUD, let alone massive.

It doesn't meet my formal definition, because it does not use a
spatial metaphor as its organizing principle.

My formal definition, which I offered up at GDC a few years back:

  A mud is a spatially based depiction of
    a somewhat persistent virtual environment, 
      which can be experienced by numerous participants at once, 
        who are represented within the space by avatars.

That said, I am using my own definitions of spatial, persistent,
numerous, and avatar in the above. Avatar, for example, refers to a
proxy for the user that is extant in the simulation, and says
nothing about its depiction within the space. It also doesn't say
anything about whether there's only one (simultaneous or not) avatar
per user, either.

Of course, I believe that JCL has explicitly barred "defining muds"
in the list charter. :)

My extended definition from which the above is derived runs to many
pages, and is up on my website at

  http://www.legendmud.org/raph/gaming/book.html

-Raph


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