[MUD-Dev] [DGN]: Ludicrous scheme.

[Yaka St.Aise]

At 21:45 +0000 03/09/04, you wrote:
> On Thu, 4 Sep 2003, Yaka St.Aise wrote:

>>  Why not just translate existing text MUDs design, then ?  Because
>>  it has already been done, with (moderately) satisfying results.

> Well, it's been done in one case: DIKU. I'm not sure I'd exactly
> describe DIKU-derived muds as the pinnacle of text mud design.

Beyond this case in point example, I was mostly making a reference
to the meme of translating (or simply porting) text-mode schemes and
ergonomics habits into graphical games as a general trend rooting in
the MUD genre history.  Meaning, arguably the legacy of the strong
history of game design from which graphical MUDs emerged can be seen
as a mixed blessing because some proven concepts in other
genre/platforms where literaly translated into new ones, thus
possibly preventing better alternatives from emerging.  This is the
classic double-edged power of learning lessons from history in a
different context: you don't have to reinvent the wheel to travel,
but having the wheel handy may bar you from reckoning you can fly if
it had not been done before.

To somewhat follow-up on a previous thread here about when or
whether the new MMORPGs could innovate
(https://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/2003Q3/thread.php#00135), I
believe one of the main issues is the obsession with finding working
and reproductible design axioms, and the geeky prejudice that there
must be a single best way to adress each issue.

While the field is rather young and still has to work out necessary
tools like a critic lexicon and reference frames for descriptive and
comparative analysis, the natural urge to systematize and write
rules in stone I see as a threat to innovation - even more so when
the stone-carving is made on an implicit-only, subconscious level to
freeze the set of prejudices we call "common wisdom".

There was a discussion on this issue in Skotos forum a while ago,
about whether NWN PW building was anything new at all
(world-building and design wise) as compared to the text-mode MUD
predecessors.  I then contended it was more than history stuttering
or repeating itself, because some of the builders had no prior
text-MUD experience, and explored venues that had been long ago
discarded (in text MUDs), but which may eventually prove adequate in
the graphical MUDs environment.  Likewise, and maybe more
interesting, some NWN-based graphical muds didn't bother with
following with some proven memes of text-MUDs because they weren't
aware of them and didn't feel those were "obvious", and "common
wisdom".  Then again, the same could be said about how D&D (a
wargame turned RPG) still shows in current designs (classes, lvls,
xp/hp etc.)...

The proposition for prototyping high-concepts and implementations
for graphical MUDs in text mode MUDs is an attempt to use
comparative experiment to help figure which design memes we port
from a platform to another out of habit (akin to
creative/intellectual sloppiness), and which we don't usually port,
yet should.  Ex: The ability of a text engine to handle grammar, and
for the players to create their own emotes on the fly has not found
any satisfying equivalents in the graphical MUDs, up to this point,
and it is conceivable it had not been thrown much effort at this
task because the early users of graphical MUDs came from text MUDs
and "naturally" emoted in the chat window (text).

To get out of the black<->white dilemma of the
illiterate<->prejudicated game designer about gaming history, I
propose comparative experimentation in design (from high-concepts to
implementation), which seems to me could be a good way not to prove
or disprove rules and memes in design, but to bettter understand how
our design culture and "common wisdom" influences our work, freeing
us from some of the burden of legacy whithout renouncing its
benefits.

Does this one float ?

Best, Yaka.
--
________________________________________
I do not consider Hitler to be as bad as he is depicted.
He is showing an ability that is amazing  and seems to be gaining his
victories without much bloodshed.
[Mahatma Gandi, May 1940]
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