[MUD-Dev] NEWS: Why Virtual Worlds are Designed By Newbies -No, Really! (By R. Bartle)

[Koster, Raph]

Matt Mihaly wrote:

>> This is the MUD-DEV list, because at the time it was begun MUD
>> was the umbrella term. Unfortunately, some people decided that
>> "MUD" meant "hacking and slaying and killing stuff", so they
>> invented their own acronyms ("MU*" is still seen fairly
>> regularly).  Also unfortunately, when graphical worlds came along
>> their players decided that "MUD" meant "text", and "MMORPG" was
>> more appropriate. As a result, we had no umbrella term by which
>> we could refer to MUDs, MMORPGs, MU*s etc. in general.
 
> For me at least, MUD seems like the obvious answer. Everquest is a
> graphical MUD. Aetolia is a text MUD. MUD doesn't imply any sort
> of particular interface or gameplay patterns, to me.

I tried. But it hasn't stuck. In common usage, for better or worse,
the majority of people associate MUDs with text-only displays. Even
though it's demonstrably false (there have been text muds with
tile-based maps, text muds with static pictures, text muds with
ASCII art, and of course, graphical muds with all significant output
in the text box), people presume that there is a vast difference.

MUDs were a problematic umbrella term fifteen years ago, when the
MU* terminology wars were going on...

(gak, has it really been fifteen years?)

  ((waiting for JC to kill this thread per the list charter, but
  hoping he doesn't))

-Raph
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