<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD --> <!--X-From-R13: Oqnz Ivttvaf <nqnzNnatry.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Fri, 4 May 1998 07:47:38 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: Pine.SGI.3.96.980504135541.23159E-100000#red,angel.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: c=US%a=_%p=EA%l=MOLACH-980504142139Z-91786#molach,origin.ea.com --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:adam#angel,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="msg00371.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00373.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00353.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00401.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00372">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00372">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00372">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: "'<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A>'" <<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A>></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD </LI> <LI><em>From</em>: Adam Wiggins <<A HREF="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Mon, 4 May 1998 14:15:48 -0700 (PDT)</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Sender</em>: "Petidomo List Agent -- Kanga.Nu version" <<A HREF="mailto:petidomo#kanga,nu">petidomo#kanga,nu</A>></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> On Mon, 4 May 1998, Koster, Raph wrote: > I'd be curious to hear what the motivations of those on the list are. > Or as a broader topic: what do people see as motives for people > crafting muds? One of the primary motivations I have seen in the past > is, "to make a game like the one I used to play until they changed it > on me." How much of the stagnation of mud development do you think is > attributable to this motive? I always think of myself as making the game I thought I was playing in the first place. That is; when I first started playing muds, I imagined them as being carefully-balanced game worlds modeled in intricate detail and controlled by an intensely complicated set of neural nets. I imagined the players as being devoted followers whose primary concern was complete immersion in the game world and their role. I imagined NPCs with long-reaching personal agendas. Obviously it didn't take very long for me to realize that they were actually a ramshackle collection of "areas" written with what was frequently far less detail or interactivitey than an old Infocom game; that the AI scripts for NPCs rarely exceeded fifty lines or kept any sort of storage; and that the game mechanics were mostly a huge list of conditional logic for handling special cases. (The first mud I played had such a huge number of special-case handlers that I was fooled into thinking it was much more comprehensive than it actually was.) So, I set to trying to create a world which had all the posibilities which current muds overlook. Mainly this involved re-examining the fundamnetals of the server design and philosophy and decided what were the worthwhile of current muds that I (we, actually) wanted to preserve. We found that many of those qualities were practically side-effects of the way that the muds worked, and set about trying to integrate those things into the base design. We wanted to model things in such a way that you had both the fantastic and exciting elements of heroic fantasy without using the linear and closed world of a normal RPG. Was this commercialy viable? Of course not. But it has been extremelly rewarding in ways that catering to the mass market never is. And, there is a commercial venture (potentially a big-name one) on the horizon for Orion and myself to which I hope that we can apply all that we've learned with our experiments to make a completely unique kind of gameplay, just as Raph did with Ultima Online. Adam -- MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future. </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="00353" HREF="msg00353.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Koster, Raph" <rkoster#origin,ea.com></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00371.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) Re: POLL: Games ruined by bad players (Player killers, tank rushers etc)</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00373.html">[MUD-Dev] Character maintinence - expenditure of resources</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00353.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00401.html">[MUD-Dev] Motivations (was something else...)</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00372"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00372"><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>[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfi</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00328" HREF="msg00328.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfi</A></strong>, Jon A. Lambert <a href="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</a>, Sat 02 May 1998, 17:11 GMT </LI> </ul> </ul> <LI><strong><A NAME="00747" HREF="msg00747.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Sun 26 Apr 1998, 16:00 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00255" HREF="msg00255.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD</A></strong>, Jay Sax <a href="mailto:cimri1#gte,net">cimri1#gte,net</a>, Thu 30 Apr 1998, 01:43 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00353" HREF="msg00353.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Mon 04 May 1998, 07:53 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00372" HREF="msg00372.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD</A></strong>, Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Mon 04 May 1998, 14:47 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00401" HREF="msg00401.html">[MUD-Dev] Motivations (was something else...)</A></strong>, s001gmu <a href="mailto:s001gmu#nova,wright.edu">s001gmu#nova,wright.edu</a>, Tue 05 May 1998, 15:55 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00403" HREF="msg00403.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Motivations (was something else...)</A></strong>, Richard Woolcock <a href="mailto:KaVir#dial,pipex.com">KaVir#dial,pipex.com</a>, Tue 05 May 1998, 16:39 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00358" HREF="msg00358.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD</A></strong>, Jay Sax <a href="mailto:cimri1#gte,net">cimri1#gte,net</a>, Mon 04 May 1998, 10:16 GMT </LI> </ul> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00654" HREF="msg00654.html">[MUD-Dev] How to represent a 3d object...</A></strong>, Ben Greear <a href="mailto:greear#cyberhighway,net">greear#cyberhighway,net</a>, Sat 25 Apr 1998, 02:44 GMT </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>