<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds --> <!--X-From-R13: Qnyvona Fverfvnf Rnexybpx <pnyvonaNqnexybpx.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 11:45:49 +0000 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 34C73184.380DD136#darklock,com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: 9801220432.8r4a@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, Re: [MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg00278.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00280.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00278.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00275.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00279">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00279">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00279">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: Caliban Tiresias Darklock <<A HREF="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 06:46:12 -0500</LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> Chris Gray wrote: > From my experience, the complete opposite is true. I have never > experienced much in the way of emotion from reading a book (other than > sympathetic sadness from books like "Lassie"). I can't imagine how a > book could startle me, for example. If you are a very empathic person, > perhaps you relate to the characters in a book much more strongly than > I do. For me, a book is entertainment. A really good book can be so > engrossing that I'll keep reading until my eyes glaze over, but about > the only emotion that comes out of it is satisfaction and contentment. Have you been reading the Gunslinger series by Stephen King? How exactly did you feel about the multiple-year wait between "The Waste Lands" and "Wizard and Glass"? Was it any less agonising than the wait between "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi"? Aren't you anxious for the NEXT book in the series? Me, I read the Belgariad when it first came out. Volume by volume. One by one. I waited for each and every book with baited breath. I cared about what was going to happen and how it was all going to turn out. That's the mark of a good author. But we don't really mean books. We mean TEXT. Let's say I show you a picture of a dragon. To use something we can all look at as a frame of reference, I'll give you a URL: <A HREF="http://www.darklock.com/fantasy/gallery/drag/drag.html">http://www.darklock.com/fantasy/gallery/drag/drag.html</A> -- which is, if you ask me, a pretty damn terrifying dragon. IF -- and this is a big if -- you look at it properly. When I look at this picture, I think 'Wow, cool dragon'. That's about it. That's all. Terrifying? Hell no. Easy to put on a MUD? Don't make me laugh. I look at this picture and go 'A dragon! Kill it!' But let's back it up into text mode. Using pure text, we can depict exactly the proper details. Much more cheaply. Much more efficiently. Listen. "The rocks crack and shift under the weight of a tremendous dragon, its scales gleaming a deep crimson in the fading light of sunset. Twin slit-pupilled eyes burn beneath a sharply ridged brow, twin horns jutting back from the skull as it swings from side to side, searching, the nostrils flaring as it sniffs the air searching for prey, and its lip curls in anticipation to reveal rows of glittering needle sharp teeth as the eyes turn and fasten on you." Two sentences. Less than 1K of space. And if you ask me, it's a hell of a lot more effective than putting a picture up on the screen. The fact of the matter is, a picture will never startle you either. You walk around a corner and are confronted by a picture of a dragon. Wow, you think, cool picture. And off you go. Might and Magic never immersed me. The mark of a good game is that it allows you to stop thinking about how to tell the game what to do, and start thinking about what you actually want to do. Ideally, you can just do it, and think about it later. I agree, graphics can make MUDs accessible to a lot more people -- but the real killer technology in this respect is the Quake 2 engine and what it brings with it. I can be immersed and taken in by a game of Quake. I can lose myself in it. Time flies. What about, say, Ultima? Never. I've never gotten immersed in Ultima, although I've gotten very involved in it. Wizardry? Ha. Warcraft? In your dreams. Diablo? Oh, please. If you really want to make a graphical MUD, look at the Quake technology. That's where people want a graphic MUD to go. Throw out all the concepts of just adding graphics to existing MUDs. Graphic MUD players will want a real-time dungeon crawl. In fact, you could redo your average Diku a lot more convincingly as a Quake TC. Multiplayer needs work. It needs a lot of server to run. But if we could kick it up as a coop Quake server, most of the Diku areas would prove to be pretty vicious and make for a good game. Particularly with respawn, and if the map was big enough. I know, Quake isn't a MUD. But go play Quake 2. It's getting there. It's getting awful close. And before people jump up to complain about system requirements, allow me to remind you: once upon a time, not long ago, people could do real work on 286 machines. The industry moves. The world grows up. Live with it. You can't move to the next level if you chain yourself to a big rock on this one. -- =+[caliban#darklock,com]=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=[<A HREF="http://www.darklock.com/]+=">http://www.darklock.com/]+=</A> "It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution, and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new one." -- Machiavelli =+=+=+[We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams]+=+=+=+= </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <UL><LI><STRONG>References</STRONG>: <UL> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="00276" HREF="msg00276.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA (Chris Gray)</LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00278.html">[MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00280.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Clients</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00278.html">[MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00275.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00279"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00279"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00005" HREF="msg00005.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Thu 01 Jan 1998, 23:19 GMT <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="00267" HREF="msg00267.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Wed 21 Jan 1998, 07:05 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00276" HREF="msg00276.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Thu 22 Jan 1998, 06:55 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00278" HREF="msg00278.html">[MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</A></strong>, Brandon Cline <a href="mailto:brandon#sedona,net">brandon#sedona,net</a>, Thu 22 Jan 1998, 08:03 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00279" HREF="msg00279.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</A></strong>, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Thu 22 Jan 1998, 11:45 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00275" HREF="msg00275.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Thu 22 Jan 1998, 07:05 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00281" HREF="msg00281.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] The impact of the web on muds</A></strong>, Shawn Halpenny <a href="mailto:malachai#iname,com">malachai#iname,com</a>, Thu 22 Jan 1998, 14:59 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00003" HREF="msg00003.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Mail from mud Zoran's final Imp</A></strong>, Stephen Zepp <a href="mailto:zoran#enid,com">zoran#enid,com</a>, Thu 01 Jan 1998, 19:51 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00007" HREF="msg00007.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Mail from mud Zoran's final Imp</A></strong>, coder <a href="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</a>, Fri 02 Jan 1998, 00:44 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>