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

[Kerry Fraser-Robinson]

Raph Koster wrote:
> On Tuesday, August 19, 2008 2:24 PM Jon Mayo wrote:
> 
>> The annoying bit about the term "MMO" is that every online game is
>> considered an "MMO" by someone theses days, even if you can only play with
>> 8 other people at a time. What is so "Massive" about that? 
> 
> "Massive" originally meant -- shock! -- MUD-sized. :) Not 1000, but on
> the order of 100 or more. Remember, the point of comparison was 8 people
> in Quake, at the time.
> 
> The first game to get labeled massive was Meridian 59, with a max of
> ~250.

You're right but I seem to recall 3DO did end up calling it a "Graphical 
MUD" on the box even if Mike Sellers remembers the MMORPG term being 
used at 3DO at the time. :)

I think we're better off looking at the words we're using and what we're 
actually trying to do with them.  "Massively", as has been mentioned, is 
pretty moot.  "Multi-player" means players.  Should we call participants 
in virtual worlds like SL etc. "players"?  "Online" makes sense I 
suppose but not all MUD's are RPG's, which leads us to the unfortunate 
position of turning an already unwieldy acronym into an entire family: 
MMOFPS, MMORTS etc.

We are already forcing one ugly acronym into a shotgun weddings with 
other ugly acronyms - it's no surprise that the offspring ain't pretty. ;)

I like "MUD" too (and it's what I'll probably always use in my own head) 
but Mike's right: it just doesn't make for a good meme these days.  So 
"Virtual Worlds" works for me as the new "MUD" i.e. a global term for 
the whole genre of online worlds of all flavours.  But with "virtual 
worlds" even some the things that none of the people on this list would 
probably consider virtual worlds are covered e.g. heavily instanced or 
lobby-driven RPG's, persistent web games - even social networks etc.

I think "Persistent" is important.  That tells people the it's a 
permanent place and will still be there when they are not.  "Online" is 
important because it tells people where it is.  And we've got all sorts 
of options for the word that tells people what it is such as world, 
game, dimension, universe, plane etc.  Scrabble champions are best 
suited to help our cause I reckon. ;)

In any case I think it's a mistake to try and base our thoughts around 
xxxRPG, xxxFPS, xxxRTS etc. when a tidy single syllable acronym for 
virtual worlds could be used alongside the existing acronyms rather than 
merged with them.  For example, if "Persistent Online Dimension" (or 
similar) began to get some mindshare we could see Pods and Pod games 
such as a Pod FPS or a Pod RPG.  I'm not actually suggesting "Pod" 
replaces "MUD" - just thinking out loud.  Pod's too conflicted with 
podcasting etc. anyway.

I think I'll leave it to those Scrabble champions to come up with 
something.  Until then I'll stick to Multi-User Dimensions in my head 
and virtual worlds in public.  And if I'm forced to refer to MMORPG's I 
think I'll pronounce them as "Morpages" like Caliban has already 
suggested in this thread.  Thanks for that. :)

-KFR

P.S.  I believe Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle were the first to coin 
the term "MUD" for their Multi-User Dungeon in 78/79, which then went on 
to become reborn as Multi-User Dimension.