[MUD-Dev2] [Design] Where are all the amateur MMORPG devs?

[John A. Bertoglio]

> Mike Rozak
> Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 2:16 PM
>
> Several amateur MMORPG development kits are now on the market (Multiverse,
> Realmcrafter, Torque), with more to come. Some amateur authors are using
> the toolkits, but despite the fact that there are around 100x as many
> MMORPG players as MUD players, there only seem to be 10x as many amateur
> MMORPG authors as amateur MUD authors. Why is this? Where are all the
> amateur MMORPG devs?
>

One word: Content.

If I deploy a stock mud and begin to customize it, at a glance it looks
just like any other mud. Sure an Achaea or Legends will have vastly more
content (both in the world and the sophistication of the underlying
engine), but superficially you have nothing to be embarrassed about.
With a graphic mud, no matter how sophisticated the tool set, an amateur
effort will almost always look...amateur. The skill set to build a
credible world with custom graphic content is just too broad for most
potential hobbyists.  

Amateurs don't want to look like amateurs.