<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: CGDC, a summary --> <!--X-From-R13: Qnyvona Fverfvnf Rnexybpx <pnyvonaNqnexybpx.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 10:02:52 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 199805111702.LAA05340#darklock,com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: c=US%a=_%p=EA%l=MOLACH-980511151523Z-108300#molach,origin.ea.com --> <!--X-Reference: Pine.HPP.3.91.980511105401.14088A-100000#emu,micro.ti.com --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: CGDC, a summary</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="msg00499.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00501.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00497.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00519.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00500">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00500">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00500">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: CGDC, a summary</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></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: CGDC, a summary</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: Caliban Tiresias Darklock <<A HREF="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Mon, 11 May 1998 13:01:12 -0400</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 10:59 AM 5/11/98 -0500, I personally witnessed Holly Sommer jumping up to say: > >Why would newbies hate a mud >school? It lets them collect their wits, and prepare for the rest of the >game. I can't see anything wrong with that, as a concept, nor with the >functionality of the "original" mud school itself. Well, there's nothing wrong with the concept, and there's nothing wrong with the functionality of the original mud school. But... the real question here is, why do newbies hate mud schools? Needless to say, I have some thoughts on this, from the perspective of a player. It's sort of hard for me to put myself in the position of someone who has never played a mud before... spent many years at this, of course... but I'll do what I can. When I turn on my computer and start a game, I want to play. Yes, I want some sort of way to learn my way around. But the last thing I need is some condescending, fourth-grade level tutorial. Think about it; you go out and find a mud, and you log on expecting to play an exciting, immersive game. And you get "Welcome to Avilard! Avilard is a MUD. MUD stands for Multi-User Dungeon. Avilard is a place that lets you take the role of blah blah blah blah, please step through the next door to continue." So you go, "cool!", and you step through the door and get "You can interact with other players in the game blah blah blah please move along" and you move along and get "When you see a monster, you can fight with it blah blah blah" and about eight rooms later you have absolutely no idea how much longer this goes on and YOU'RE NOT READING ANYMORE. You don't care. Your patience has run out, and you just want to get through this damn class so you can go play. But this part is important, so the administrative staff makes sure to ask interesting questions that require the user to read the descriptions. But they're not interesting anymore. They're tedious and annoying and by the time the user gets to the end of the introduction, he's not happy and confident and ready to play and better prepared to do so. He's pissed off. He's annoyed and disgruntled by being forced to go through this pedantic crap, and may not even want to play anymore. Even if he's read all the stuff on the intro, even if he's not upset by it, he's probably a little overwhelmed. Because to put it bluntly, it's too long, and it's too much. Some people will immediately jump up and say "but that isn't a mud school!" -- because they're thinking of the academy, where all the easy bits and pieces of information are kept so the user can go get them. I don't consider that a school, but more of a library; in a school, you are taught, while in a library you tend to teach yourself. The academy falls into the latter category. But I'll take a look at the academy, too, and why people dislike it. The academy is terribly annoying. You walk in, and there's almost no possibility of death, which is of course a rather good thing for the new player. But here's what has, in my opinion, led to the hack-and-slash culture that pervades MUDs -- there's nothing going on! All there is to do is wander around in a maze and kill monsters. You can't effectively go out and do anything else, because you're too weak and too broke and too badly equipped. So you get trained, and very effectively trained, to ignore the rest of the players and just kill anything that looks like you might get experience for it. You don't read descriptions. You don't even really read monster names. And you don't talk to anyone, because you need to stay in here building up your strength LONG after you're ready to go out and handle the world from a mental standpoint. Most of the people in the academy, therefore, are not interested in conversation, or even in holding still long enough to be spoken to. They just want to find the next thing they could kill. So it's almost impossible for the player who wants to talk to find other players he can talk to. When he does, these people have once again been trained by the same interface and the same culture not to talk much to other people. So the socially-oriented player ends up dissatisfied, and leaves. The problem with mud schools is not with the way they're designed or with the fact that they're in the game. The problem is that they take too long and don't serve the needs of the player, plus... you can't avoid them! You have to go through them, every time, no matter what your experience level is. Personally, I'd fix this by making the initial training optional, and by more effectively designing the areas around the city. By this, I mean an incremental difference in the difficulty of areas when you go farther from town. The academy should be just what it is, a library; you go in, and you can look around and find out what you need to know. Divide it into both broad and specific subject areas. Use some logical system to define how everything fits together. Sequential access doesn't work for something like that. There are a lot of different ways to learn and a lot of different ways people like to be taught, but I think we can safely assume most people logging onto the average text-based mud are capable of learning by going and looking something up. The Dewey decimal system is probably overkill, though... ;) Obviously I'm thinking of the way things work in the old-style muds that I tend to like. The newer things a lot of people are doing these days just annoy me most of the time. There's an awful lot of innovation that doesn't really do a whole lot for the player in the end, it just makes things difficult. -- MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future. </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <ul compact><li><strong>Follow-Ups</strong>: <ul> <li><strong><A NAME="00593" HREF="msg00593.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: CGDC, a summary</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> J C Lawrence <claw#under,engr.sgi.com></li></ul> <li><strong><A NAME="00519" HREF="msg00519.html">[MUD-Dev] Mudschool</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Ling <K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk></li></ul> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <UL><LI><STRONG>References</STRONG>: <UL> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="00496" HREF="msg00496.html">[MUD-Dev] RE: CGDC, a summary</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Koster, Raph" <rkoster#origin,ea.com></LI></UL></LI> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="00497" HREF="msg00497.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: CGDC, a summary</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Holly Sommer <hsommer#micro,ti.com></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00499.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: CGDC, a summary</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00501.html">[MUD-Dev] On tanks...</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00497.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: CGDC, a summary</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00519.html">[MUD-Dev] Mudschool</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00500"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00500"><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="00501" HREF="msg00501.html">[MUD-Dev] On tanks...</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Mon 11 May 1998, 18:10 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00535" HREF="msg00535.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: On tanks...</A></strong>, Ling <a href="mailto:K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk">K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk</a>, Wed 13 May 1998, 09:46 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00496" HREF="msg00496.html">[MUD-Dev] RE: CGDC, a summary</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Mon 11 May 1998, 15:17 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00497" HREF="msg00497.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: CGDC, a summary</A></strong>, Holly Sommer <a href="mailto:hsommer#micro,ti.com">hsommer#micro,ti.com</a>, Mon 11 May 1998, 16:02 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00500" HREF="msg00500.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: CGDC, a summary</A></strong>, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Mon 11 May 1998, 17:02 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00519" HREF="msg00519.html">[MUD-Dev] Mudschool</A></strong>, Ling <a href="mailto:K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk">K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk</a>, Tue 12 May 1998, 15:18 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00521" HREF="msg00521.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Mudschool</A></strong>, Richard Woolcock <a href="mailto:KaVir#dial,pipex.com">KaVir#dial,pipex.com</a>, Tue 12 May 1998, 18:21 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00534" HREF="msg00534.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Mudschool</A></strong>, Ling <a href="mailto:K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk">K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk</a>, Wed 13 May 1998, 08:01 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00570" HREF="msg00570.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Mudschool</A></strong>, Travis S. Casey <a href="mailto:efindel#io,com">efindel#io,com</a>, Thu 14 May 1998, 12:50 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </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>