[MUD-Dev2] Bad Terminology: MMO, MMORPG vs. MUD

[Michael Hartman]

Sean Howard wrote:
> I thought it stood for "Multi User Dungeon" ... Or was that "Domain"? :)
> 
> Personally, I'm in favor of making a distinction between text-based MUDs
> and graphics-based MMORPGs. 

MUD. TMUD. GMUD. A million times better than the utterly horrid MMORPG.

> Also, I'm okay with MMORPGs - I would've liked a better term (perhaps
> something you can pronounce as an acronym), but it is standard now and it
> doesn't seem worth the effort to change it. I know some people get
> flustered with the RPG part, but for my money, if it has persistent
> characters in a (semi-)persistent world, it's RPG plenty.

While I lament the fact that RPG has become a term that means "stat 
grinding" rather than role playing, that part doesn't bother me.

The extremely cumbersome nature of MMORPG is what bugs me. I have no 
idea how that horrid term came to be, and whoever invented it needs to 
be throw in the same pit as the doofus that invented bind on pickup 
crafted items (stupid).

Someone influential needs to coin a better term and spare us from this 
garbage MMORPG term. The term itself is unpronounceable, and the words 
it stands for are a gobbled mess as well.

People have been shortening it to MMO lately so it is easier to say, but 
think about how ridiculous that is when you actually extrapolate MMO:

"Our company is working on an MMO."

"Our company is working on a Massively Multiplayer Online."

That's just terrible.





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