nu.kanga.list.mud-dev

7378: [MUD-Dev] Re: Ugh, IS Diablo a mud?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ryan Prince [mailto:jynx_ryn@mindless.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 1998 9:17 PM
> To: mud-dev@kanga.nu
> Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Ugh, IS Diablo a mud?
> 
> 
> The 
> "I MUST LEVEL"
> attitude in players is an indicator for me that you are 
> slipping away from what
> I view as the purpose of MUDs, which is player interaction 
> and puzzle solving.

Whoa! I'd guess that puzzle-solving is an element is less than 5% of
muds. In fact, you could argue pretty effectively that puzzle-solving
and muds are fundamentally incompatible, and that a lot of the classic
problems with mud quests derive from that fact. Whereas repetitive
action (be it repetitive killing or repetitive whatever else, a la
fishing in UO) is VERY suited to the current state of the art in
muds--and has proved to be either the most popular or second-most
popular activity in muds (the other being just talking to each other).

In other words, if you pointed at muds that exist now when asked for a
definition, your statement of the purpose of muds would not stand. Yet
all the active posters on this list, anyway, and certainly just about
every player except hardcore playerkillers, tends to agree that stronger
narrative, puzzles, and so on are necessary ingredients. WHY we all seem
to feel that way is an interesting question.

-Raph