[MUD-Dev] Blog about GDC implies changes to MMORPG population

[Michael Hartman]

Lydia Leong wrote:
> On Jun 24 11:46, Amanda Walker wrote:

> Second Life is to MMOGs, what TinyMUD is to MUDs. For those of you
> who don't know MUD history: TinyMUD is the "root" of the MUD
> server design that becomes MUSH, MUCK, MOO, etc. -- MUD servers
> that emphasize an open or semi-open "player content creation"
> model.

> MUD people call player content creation "building". I don't think
> there's any real need to invent a new term for the graphical form
> of it, or to co-opt the word "crafting", which has been the
> traditional term used in MMORPGs (and MUDs) to denote the economic
> system and player ability to interact with the economy. "Crafting"
> has generally manifested itself as "click to instantiate an item,
> take multiple instantiated items and combine them to make another
> instantiated item", although other models have emerged and will
> continue to emerge.

> Note that the only real difference between Second Life and a
> Tiny-style MUD is the fact that you're in a 3D world, and there's
> a commercial entity behind it. The parallels between Second Life
> and the early Tiny worlds are enormous, down to the evolution of
> player activities. (Early Tiny worlds: TinyMUD Classic, TinyHell,
> Islandia, etc. LambdaMOO belongs to that generation of design,
> although MOO is second-generation technology.)  Might as well keep
> some terminology in common.

This is a pretty brilliant analogy as well as very apt analysis.

I also agree that there is no need to co-opt terms that already have
an established meaning ("crafting") when truly what people do in SL
(or TinyMUD) is "building."

--
Michael Hartman, J.D. (http://www.thresholdrpg.com)
President & CEO, Threshold Virtual Environments, Inc.
University of Georgia School of Law, 1995-1998
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, 1990-1994
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