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

[Michael Sellers]

JC wrote:
> Michael Sellers <mike at onlinealchemy.com> wrote:
>> JC wrote:

>> [MUD is] an acronym well-rooted in history.  But one that's also
>> not suited to the commercial marketplace.

> I'm not sure, not in the long term.  Oh, sure, current marketing
> realities, branding definitions, etc have well established the
> need for other terms, but I see that as a function of the market
> being immature rather than of fundamental commercial realities.

Well it's been almost ten years since I first saw a marketing-type
grimace at the idea of calling an online game "mud" -- seems pretty
long-term to me.  I haven't seen it used commercially recently
either.  In terms of the marketplace, 'MUD' is losing currency
rather than gaining relevance.

There's always "PSW" for "persistent-state world" that was in vogue
at EA a few years back.  Of course now that EA is all but out of
that market, it's hard to say what's in vogue there or how much
it'll matter to the rest of the industry.

Reviewing some non-game (or at least non-game-industry) docs, I see
"online world" in a few places, with multi-player being more or less
assumed.  "Shared space" and other equally limp phrases come up too.

Mike Sellers
Online Alchemy
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