August 2000
- Pfile Wiping: was The Player Wimping Guidebook William Katzell
- Pfile Wiping: was The Player Wimping Guidebook Koster, Raph
- Release of Blood Drops ver 0.1 adam@treyarch.com
- MUD Wimping -- An anecdote Zak Jarvis
- Responses to the Mudwimping article Dmitri Zagidulin
- Responses to the Mudwimping article Greg Underwood
- Responses to the Mudwimping article Nathan Clemons
- wimping/wiping and the big blind spot Peter
- wimping/wiping and the big blind spot Tamzen Cannoy
- wimping/wiping and the big blind spot Josh Rollyson
- World Event Model Matt Chatterley
- World Event Model adam@treyarch.com
- World Event Model Christoph Seifert
- World Event Model Josh Rollyson
- World Event Model Christian Loth
- Player-admins, was wimping/wiping and the big blind spot Patrick Dughi
- Player-admins, was wimping/wiping and the big blind spot Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- Player-admins, was wimping/wiping and the big blind spot Patrick Dughi
- Player-admins, was wimping/wiping and the big blind spot Matt Chatterley
- Player-admins, was wimping/wiping and the big blind spot Peter
- Player-admins, was wimping/wiping and the big blind spot Sellers, Michael
- Player-admins, was wimping/wiping and the big blind spot Matthew Mihaly
- Player-admins, was wimping/wiping and the big blind spot rayzam
- Player-admins, was wimping/wiping and the big blind spot adam@treyarch.com
- Player-admins, was wimping/wiping and the big blind spot Matthew Mihaly
- Pfile Wiping, etc. Jon Callas
- Pfile Wiping, etc. rayzam
- Pfile Wiping, etc. Sanvean
- Pfile Wiping, etc. rayzam
- Pfile Wiping, etc. adam@treyarch.com
- linked worlds (was: On Lockless Threading and X/Open XA) Bruce
- linked worlds (was: On Lockless Threading and X/Open XA) Matthew Mihaly
- Mud Evolution rayzam
- Mud Evolution Koster, Raph
- Mud Evolution rayzam
- Unique Items (was MUD Wimping) Lord Ashon
- Unique Items (was MUD Wimping) Neddy Seagoon
- Pfile Wiping, etc. Christoph Seifert
- Mud Metrics rayzam
- Mud Metrics Justin Rogers
- Mud Metrics rayzam
- Law of Resource Congestion Christian Loth
- Law of Resource Congestion Josh Rollyson
- Law of Resource Congestion Dan Merillat
- Law of Resource Congestion Dan Shiovitz
- Law of Resource Congestion Christian Loth
- Law of Resource Congestion Patrick Dughi
- Law of Resource Congestion Scion
- Law of Resource Congestion ens017@mizzou.edu
- Law of Resource Congestion Nathan F. Yospe
- Law of Resource Congestion Matthew Mihaly
- Law of Resource Congestion Nathan F. Yospe
- Law of Resource Congestion Matthew Mihaly
- Law of Resource Congestion Patrick Dughi
- Law of Resource Congestion Nathan F. Yospe
- Law of Resource Congestion Andy
- World Event Model (Christian Loth) Christoph Seifert
- World Event Model [Josh Rollyson] Christoph Seifert
- Player-admins, was wimping/wiping and the big blind Hess, Ian W {Ian}
- Majesty (was: Player-admins, was wimping/wiping and the big blind) Chris Jacobson
- World Event Model [Josh Rollyson] (long/technical) Christoph Seifert
- Skotos News & Skotos @ Gencon Christopher Allen
- Harry Potter stuff Timothy Dang
- Harry Potter stuff Chris Gray
- Harry Potter stuff Matthew Mihaly
- Child animations in MUDs (UO) Brett
- Child animations in MUDs (UO) Koster, Raph
- Constraint as a Design Problem Christopher Allen
- an opportunity Matthew Mihaly
- UO rants Matthew Mihaly
- UO rants Norman Short
- UO rants Wes Connell
- UO rants Schubert, Damion
- UO rants Wes Connell
- UO rants Matthew Mihaly
- UO rants John Buehler
- UO rants Shawn L Johnston
- UO rants Matthew Mihaly
- UO rants John Buehler
- UO rants Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- UO rants Matthew Mihaly
- UO rants Vincent Archer
- UO rants Dan Merillat
- UO rants John Buehler
- UO rants Tess Lowe
- UO rants Matthew Mihaly
- UO rants Dan Merillat
- UO rants Ian Macintosh
- UO rants Koster, Raph
- UO rants Matthew Mihaly
- UO rants Schubert, Damion
- UO rants Matthew Mihaly
On Tue, 22 Aug 2000, Schubert, Damion wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Matthew Mihaly [mailto:the_logos@achaea.com]
>
> > Unfortunately, I think we can expect that to be par for the
> > course with
> > licenses and massively multiplayer worlds. It happened with
> > Ultima. Sierra
> > completely mucked up the Tolkien license and wasn't even able
> > to deliver a
> > decent friggin' game on time. I shudder to see Star Wars
> > Online. In their
> > defence though, I don't put the blame on the large commercial
> > designers
> > though. They are under a mandate (presumably either explicit
> > or implied)
> > to make money for their employers.
>
> Being able to pay your employees salaries is, like, cool and stuff.
Yeah. Otherwise they get grumpy.
> Seriously, most licenses are _not well designed_ to be turned
> into MUDs, because MUDs are usually somewhat static,
> predictable worlds with spawns and campers and D00dz and easily
> twiddleable alignment systems and ludicrously stupid NPCs who
> will give you the same quest every day of the week and plots
> that move forward extremely slowly if at all and fiction that
> rarely if ever turns the hero into the center of attention and
> players who insist on naming themselves Beavis and wandering
> around the world going "'heh-heh-heh-heh... he said 'Shaft'".
I know! I think the ranter was somewhat aware of this to.
> That doesn't make the desire of thousands of players to live
> in the world of Tolkien, or Star Wars, or Dune, or Anne Rice,
> any less. It is, in fact, far more compelling to your average
> user than a world created from scratch. You only need to
> take a look at the MUD list to see the sheer number of well
> populated dikus, LPs and MUSHes based on existing properties.
> Most MUDs that aren't strictly one fiction have Python areas,
> Robin Hood areas or Tolkien areas which tend to be more
> popular because they are mentally accessible to the user.
> Places you know are more comfortable places to 'live'.
But this is the point of the ranter. These worlds aren't being 'ruined'
for the sake of the players. They are being ruined for the sake of the
almighty dollar (again, I emphasize that as long as you don't do it to
Tolkien, you are safe from my wrath).
Also, I question your logic that because there are many license-derived
MUDs because that is what people want. Instead, I would point to the
general lack of imagination among mud admins. It's like the way Hollywood
copies itself constantly. Was there some big public demand for TWO major
'meteor' movies two summers ago? (Armaggedon and Deep Impact) I don't
think so, but it's a case of "If you build it, they will come."
(I'll also point out that we can only HOPE for the day when the majority
of license-derived muds are from such quality properties as Tolkien and
Dune. Nay, go to the Mudconnector and you'll see that the top properties
appear to be crap like Dragonball. The top two muds by telnet requests,
right now, are, in fact, Dragonball X and Dragonball Series.)
> And for what it's worth, I don't know of any fiction that
> captures the realisms of the genre, such as the ones I
> listed above. The decisions behind all of the things
> mentioned above were made by the UO, EQ and AC teams for
> solid reasons, more often related to time and code
> complexity than to money. The realities of the MMPRPG
> genre are so specific that they must always be in the
> driver's seat, which means that the fiction, oftentimes,
> is not.
Yes, I know all this, and it's all an argument for not using the property
if it's going to be messed up. Would a bunch of Muslims get upset if you
made a big fat commercial mud based on the Koran, with Mohammed as an NPC
you can kill and abuse? Damn right they would. Why should it be any
different for Tolkien or Star Wars (or whatever) fans?
> >If that means destroying a
> > well-loved
> > property, well, so be it. Really, it's just the sort of thing
> > you'd expect
> > from EA. *starts ranting about how incredibly lame it is that EA is
> > shutting down both Meridian 59 and Kesmai*
>
> Meridian 59 is being shut down by the company that owns it,
> which is 3DO, not EA. Now, I probably love that game more
> than anyone on the planet, but it's numbers at this time
> are very low (i.e. usually less than 80 people online at
> a time), which is to say, almost certainly unprofitable.
Right, sorry. I like to blame EA for all sorts of things. I'd also argue
that Meridian 59's current failure is due at least in part to a lack of
marketing effort on the part of 3DO, and a general lack of attention put
into the game on the admin side.
--matt
"He that is wounded in the testicles, or have his penis cut off, shall not
enter into the congregation of the Lord." Deuteronomy 23:1
- UO rants Matthew Mihaly
- UO rants Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- UO rants Tess Lowe
- UO rants Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
- UO rants Jeff Freeman
- UO rants Chris Lloyd
- UO rants Koster, Raph
- UO rants Koster, Raph
- UO rants Dan Merillat
- UO rants John Buehler
- UO rants Chris Lloyd
- UO rants Richard A. Bartle
- UO rants Koster, Raph
- UO rants Zak Jarvis
- Object Representations? KevinL
- Object Representations? Lazarus
- Object Representations? Patrick Dughi
- Object Representations? Phillip Lenhardt
- Reality vs Fantasy (was Law of Resource Congestion) Mordengaard
- Reality vs Fantasy (was Law of Resource Congestion) Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- [gods] Player Representatives? (fwd) J C Lawrence
- Re:[gods] Player Representatives? (fwd) Christoph Seifert
- UO Virtues Schubert, Damion
- UO Virtues John Buehler
- Object Representations? Robert Zubek
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Joe Andrieu
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Bruce
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Ben
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] John Buehler
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Matthew Mihaly
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Matt Chatterley
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Dan Merillat
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Matt Chatterley
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Michael Tresca
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Dan Merillat
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Ben
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Milne, Alistair
- Reputation & Trust Circles [was UO rants] Ian Macintosh
- MXP/Extending MUD Technologies (Was Object Representations?) Nathan Clemons
- Matching and Maximizing: How players choose between activities John Hopson
- PK vs. PvP (was: UO rants) Ananda Dawnsinger
- PK vs. PvP (was: UO rants) Matthew Mihaly
- PK vs. PvP (was: UO rants) Vincent Archer
- PK vs. PvP (was: UO rants) Matt Chatterley
- PK vs. PvP (was: UO rants) Vincent Archer
- PK vs. PvP (was: UO rants) Zak Jarvis
- PK vs. PvP (was: UO rants) Matt Chatterley
- PK vs. PvP (was: UO rants) Matthew Mihaly
- PK vs. PvP (was: UO rants) Zak Jarvis
- PK vs. PvP (was: UO rants) Vincent Archer
- PK vs. PvP (was: UO rants) Dan Merillat
- PK vs. PvP (was: UO rants) Dan Merillat
- Crime Ben
- Cooperation vs Competition Ron Moore
- Cooperation vs Competition Jo Dillon
- [Moebius] MXP/Extending MUD Technologies (Was Object Representations?) KevinL
- FW: UO rants John Buehler
- Reincarnation instead of Resurrection Lovecraft
- Reincarnation instead of Resurrection Shawn L Johnston
- Reincarnation instead of Resurrection Matthew Mihaly
- PvP solutions WAS: UO rants Zak Jarvis
- PvP solutions WAS: UO rants Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
- Playerkilling Pacifists Michael Tresca
- Playerkilling Pacifists Matthew Mihaly
- Playerkilling Pacifists Michael Tresca
- url for The Hundred Years War Ron Moore
- url for The Hundred Years War Marc Bowden
- [paper] The Sacred and the Virtual: Religion in Multi-User Virtual Reality Jon Lambert
- Avatar rights redux Koster, Raph
- Avatar rights redux Dave Rickey
- Holidays Jeff Freeman
- Transportation (was: UO rants) Chris Lloyd
- Transportation (was: UO rants) Patrick Dughi
- Transportation (was: UO rants) Brad Wyble
- Transportation (was: UO rants) Norman Short
- Transportation (was: UO rants) Chris Lloyd
- Transportation (was: UO rants) KevinL
- Transportation (was: UO rants) Patrick Dughi
- Transportation (was: UO rants) Dan Merillat
- Transportation (was: UO rants) Warren Powell
- Transportation (was: UO rants) KevinL
- Fraud (was: UO rants) Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- Fraud (was: UO rants) John Buehler
- Transportation Ron Moore
- Transportation Madrona Tree
- time delays on PK (was UO rants) gmiller@classic-games.com
- time delays on PK (was UO rants) Erik Jarvi
- Copyright Question for the Hobbyists Kristen L. Koster
- Copyright Question for the Hobbyists Patrick Dughi
- Copyright Question for the Hobbyists Travis Casey
- Copyright Question for the Hobbyists Alex
- Copyright Question for the Hobbyists Lazarus
- Copyright Question for the Hobbyists Marc Bowden