[MUD-Dev] DESIGN: Why do MUD players prefer MUDs over MMORPGs

[Mike Rozak]

A few months ago I posted a poll to www.mudmagic.com, asking "Why do
you prefer MUDs to MMORPGs?". (MUDMagic is not the sort of place
where MMORPG players hang out.) The poll didn't get posted within a
few weeks, so I assumed it was lost in the bitbucket. To my
surprise, it eventually did get posted, and also produced a number
of well thought-out comments from players. See

  http://www.mudmagic.com/polls/view/31

The non-scientific poll produced the following results: (You might
also wish to read the comments.)

  Smaller community...  5.65 % (24)
  More innovation...  9.65 % (41)
  Role playing...  18.82 % (80)
  Cheaper...  12.24 % (52)
  Don't need expensive PC...  3.76 % (16)
  More imaginative worlds...  10.35 % (44)
  MMORPGs dont like my OS...  3.53 % (15)
  MUDs have deeper gameplay...  23.53 % (100)
  Blind; I use screenreader...  3.53 % (15)
  I prefer MMORPGs...  8.94 % (38)

What I found interesting is...

  - More innovation, imaginative worlds, deeper gameplay, and role
  playing are all high, as expected.

  - "Low cost" is not as big of an influence as I
  expected. According to the poll, it's about 16% (cheaper, don't
  need expensive PC). I though it would be 25%-35%.

  - "Smaller community" and "MMORPGs dont like my OS" were less
  important than I expected.

  - "Blind; I use a screenreader" has a higher percentage than I
  expected. When working on the speech API, I attended a speech
  conference attended by many blind users, and got an earful about
  their requirements. At the moment I am developing a
  verbal/graphical VW, and always keep vision-impaired design in the
  back of my mind, although I don't know if I can design my
  mostly-graphical system to work well for blind users. (Can a
  Myst-like UI be designed for a screen reader? I'll probably need
  to find a very patient blind user to iteratively tell me exactly
  what doesn't work.) Has anyone in MMORPG-land thought about
  vision-impaired users and come up with any solutions?

  - The comments are interesting too, such as: closer interaction
  with the design staff, play from work (perhaps as a multitasked
  effort, as is being discussed on terranova now), types (maturity?)
  of players attracted to MUDs are different than MMORPGs,
  imagination is better than graphics, and ability to change the
  world.

Does anyone have anything to add? (Or perhaps someone will point to
a discussion that happened back in 1999-2001...)

Do you think MMORPGs will ever be able to compete on some/all of
these points?

Mike Rozak
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