[MUD-Dev] Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games

[Edward Glowacki]

Michael Hartman wrote:

> If you know in advance that the majority of your customers will be
> from the United States, does that inherently necessitate the use
> of the English system (feet, yards, miles, etc.)?

> Or is it still feasible to use the metric system?

> If you use the metric system, will you be sacrificing your
> potential attractiveness to US players?

Philosophically, I'd say use metric for everything, *especially* for
US audiences.  I think it would really help get exposure to the
metric system in the US, and that's definitely a good thing.  As
people play the games, they would start becoming comfortable and
familiar with the metric system in a "safe" environment where it
doesn't really matter anyway.  If the weights of items in the game
were tied fairly accurately to real life weights, even better, as
then people can start mapping stuff from in-game to real life, again
in a fairly safe way.  This would probably go a long way into
softening resistance to the metric system in the US, since an
increasingly large segment of the population who play these games
would no longer be able to object on the grounds of "I don't
understand it" or "It's new and different, and therefore scary!"

-ED
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev