November 2005
- Computer Security for MMOs and Online Games Greg B
- Discussion of MUD system design, development, and implementation Chris Duesing
- Commentary on Recent PlayOn Blog Social Cohesion Christopher Allen
- quest engine design documents? Johnicholas Hines
- Effort to produce a quest Mike Rozak
- Effort to produce a quest Ghilardi Filippo
- Effort to produce a quest Mike Rozak
- Effort to produce a quest Kiztent
- Effort to produce a quest Vincent Archer
- Effort to produce a quest Damion Schubert
- Effort to produce a quest Mike Rozak
- Effort to produce a quest Damion Schubert
- Effort to produce a quest Mike Rozak
- Effort to produce a quest Randolf Richardson
- Effort to produce a quest Lachek Butalek
- DGN: Starting with Nothing (Requests for Resources) Sarah Bonner
- DGN: Starting with Nothing (Requests for Resources) lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- DGN: Starting with Nothing (Requests for Resources) Otis Viles
- Text MUDs; in need of an (r)evolution? John Mauney
- Text MUDs; in need of an (r)evolution? Sean Howard
- Text MUDs; in need of an (r)evolution? Sam Pointon
- Text MUDs; in need of an (r)evolution? John Mauney
- Text MUDs; in need of an (r)evolution? justice@softhome.net
- Text MUDs; in need of an (r)evolution? Lachek Butalek
- Text MUDs; in need of an (r)evolution? lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
On Nov 17, 6:19pm, Lachek Butalek wrote:
> Most MUDs had a very limited number of users, often a community
> closely knit in Real Life, and they knew the system inside out -
> or could easily get a hold of the person who did. MUDs were more
> experimental playgrounds than games - think Second Life moreso
> than EQ.
I think this very much depends on what MUDs you're talking about.
The community has fragmented more and more over time. In the early
90s there were a few hundred games, but only a relatively small
number of them had sizable player populations. Some of them were
seeded by folks who knew each other in real life, and some continued
to be limited to people who were relatively local, but many others
were seeded by people who knew each other only through the Internet
and/or grew far beyond geographic boundaries.
A significant number of MUDs have been quite professionally run --
an impressive number of smoothly-functioning bureaucracies,
really. Certainly some MUDs were interestingly experimental chaos,
but I would assert that most of the successful ones weren't; if they
made changes, they were generally quite thoroughly thought out and
purposeful, as opposed to, "I had a random cool idea in the shower
today" changes.
> If you compare a MUD's learning curve to something like EQ or UO,
> I think most would prefer the MUD's. WoW or City of Heroes is a
> different matter, but these games are designed for mass appeal
> (and little else, as ranted on elsewhere).
Be careful not to confuse ease of use, particularly in terms of a
reasonable interface and learning curve, with game depth and
complexity or its appeal to the hard-core.
EVE Online, for example, has one of the best tutorials that I've
ever seen for a MMOG, despite being clearly in the hard-core camp.
> While I just complained in VERBOSE mode, I actually do agree that
> MUDs should try new things. The great thing about MUDs is that you
> *can* try new things relatively quickly and without spending a
> large research or development budget - the issue is getting the
> Comp.Sci. students to realize that the whole goblin killing
> business is no longer the coolest thing since caffeinated soft
> drinks. And yes, I'm a part time Comp.Sci. student, so I can say
> that. :)
A significant number of the stranger projects out there never see
the light of day, or at least never see a sizable player
base. There's an awful lot out there that isn't of the
kill-a-billion-foozles variety. I've seen some pretty avant-garde
stuff out there, well-built, well-coded, well-documented, that was
just too niche to find an audience. Heck, I've built some games of
that sort myself.
On the MMOG side, by the way, I don't believe that invention is just
a problem of creativity (it may not be a problem of creativity at
all). It's also a problem of matching the game design to the
audience it could reasonably attract, and a workable business
model. We're still in the very early stages of the business models.
-- Lydia
- Text MUDs; in need of an (r)evolution? lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- Text MUDs; in need of an (r)evolution? Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: Personal NPCs Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: Personal NPCs CHRISTOPHER LLOYD
- DESIGN: Personal NPCs Mike Rozak
- DESIGN: Personal NPCs cruise
- DESIGN: Personal NPCs lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- DESIGN: Personal NPCs Mike Rozak
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains Roger Hicks
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains cruise
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains Lydia Leong
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains Dave Mitchell
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains Lost
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains Lachek Butalek
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains Lost
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains jack fredricks
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains Mike Rozak
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains Arnau Josep Rosselló Castelló
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains Damien Neil
- Dynamic Quests & Event Chains ceo
- DESIGN: Personal NPCs cruise
- DESIGN: Personal NPCs Jaycen Rigger
- (no subject) Koster, Raph
- Removing the Massively from MMOG (long) cruise
- Removing the Massively from MMOG (long) Lachek Butalek
- MMO a temporary phenomenon? John Buehler
- Sexism in design lwl@black-knight.org (Lydia Leong)
- Sexism in design Marc Bowden
- Sexism in design Louis d'Ambra
- Sexism in design Sean Kelly
- Sexism in design Amanda Walker
- Value Brian "Ayavaron" Ross
- Griefing Brian "Ayavaron" Ross
- RE : Removing the Massively from MMOG (long) Jean, Yannick
- RE : Removing the Massively from MMOG (long) Marc Bowden
- RE : Removing the Massively from MMOG (long) Lost
- RE : Removing the Massively from MMOG (long) Damion Schubert
- RE : Removing the Massively from MMOG (long) Lachek Butalek
- Changing Midstream (SWG's New Look) Sean Howard
- Changing Midstream (SWG's New Look)
- Changing Midstream (SWG's New Look) Sean Howard
- Changing Midstream (SWG's New Look) Caliban Darklock
- Changing Midstream (SWG's New Look) Sean Howard
- Changing Midstream (SWG's New Look) Ryan S. Dancey
- Changing Midstream (SWG's New Look) Jeffrey Kesselman
- Changing Midstream (SWG's New Look) Ken Sewell
- Changing Midstream (SWG's New Look) Sean Howard
- Changing Midstream (SWG's New Look) Joe Ludwig
- Discussion of MUD system design, development, and implementation Chris Duesing