<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] The great crusade.... --> <!--X-From-R13: X Q Znjerapr <pynjNhaqre.rate.ftv.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 18:18:35 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 199806160114.SAA00367#under,engr.sgi.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] The great crusade....</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.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="msg01058.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg01060.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg01080.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg01049.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#01059">Author</A> | <A HREF="#01059">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#01059">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] The great crusade....</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] The great crusade.... </LI> <LI><em>From</em>: J C Lawrence <<A HREF="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 18:14:58 -0700</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#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> URL:<A HREF="http://www.suite101.com/articles/article.cfm/6102">http://www.suite101.com/articles/article.cfm/6102</A> --<cut>-- The great crusade.... As you know, this column deals with online gaming. In particular, much attention has been devoted towards MUDs, both text and graphical. In this week's article, I intend to continue in this direction, and discuss the issue of role-playing as well as "realism" within a world along with my crusade to located what I would consider to be the perfect MUD. For some, though, this idea of a MUD being extremely realistic is pointless, for no matter how you change the code, you will always fight "monsters." For others, including myself, realism and a strong sense of role-playing is something we feel is crucial towards creating a world where one can feel as though they have entered an alternate reality. For my self, The MUD I was searching for was one which could be summed up as a "working, non-buggy, role-played Ultima Online." I wanted a MUD which not only stressed role-playing (as many do), but rather enforced it. I understood that a MUD such as this would be hard to find, as it is extremely hard for one to require individuals to play in a certain way. In any case, I did a large amount of searching through newsgroup postings, search engines and various poorly updated WWW pages. Finally, after many hours of wading through some MUDs which claimed to offer a "role-playing environment" yet had no one logged on at prime time, I found the needle in the haystack. For the sake of this article, and for my own personal reasons, I will not reveal the name of this MUD. As I stated in the introduction, realism and enforced role-playing is something I wanted to find in a MUD. I wanted a MUD where you were required to be in character every moment you were logged on, whether you were in a private channel with one other person, or were walking the streets of a city. I wanted a place where while numbers, stats and levels existed, but they were not talked about openly by the population. The gem I found had all these elements, however it occurred to me that in order to create such a world many aspects of MUDs which others find enjoyable would have to be removed, if not banned completely. While I find role-playing on this MUD to be extremely enjoyable, this is something which may not appeal to everyone. In fact, I believe that many individuals would be completely opposed to this MUD in particular. On the MUD I found, which I will now refer to as the "gem MUD," getting purged by the gods was extremely easy. Many actions which might bring you only a warning on a normal MUD would be punished by a harsh and public humiliation by the gods before a nuke. Even more surprisingly, this was a hidden fact. Whenever a player was humiliated and "deleted," a log was kept of the entire incident. There files were then available for all to read as help files. For example, one individual was caught multiplaying. He was then questioned by the gods on a public channel, and was made a fool out of, eventually to be purged. On the "gem MUD," a policy exists banning multiplaying. However, by multiplaying, they mean not only being logged on at the same time as two characters, but actually owning two characters on the world! At first, this seemed quite ridiculous to me, but I soon realized the point of such a rule. The basic idea behind just rule was that if you owned more than one character, you would have the ability and the knowledge to create a better low level character then a brand new player. At the end, it all came down to one thing. It seemed that in finding a true role-playing MUD, you also found a place where much freedom was given up. You lost the liberty to speak what you felt, or hold a friendly chat with a friend on a topic not concerning the MUD. On the other hand, you lived a true alternate life, one where you felt as though you were actually adventuring with mature gamers who had the same desire as yourself. It really depends on which you put more weight on. --<cut>-- He claims, BTW, to be a high schooler. -- J C Lawrence Internet: claw#null,net (Contractor) Internet: coder#ibm,net ---------(*) Internet: claw#under,engr.sgi.com ...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith... </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01058.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: stuff that makes me leave (was Re: In game bulletin...)</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01060.html">[MUD-Dev] Re:(fwd) Re: Multiple currencies</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01080.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: The great crusade....</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01049.html">[MUD-Dev] (fwd) Temporality and user actions in MUDs</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#01059"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#01059"><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="01062" HREF="msg01062.html">[MUD-Dev] RE: The great crusade....</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Tue 16 Jun 1998, 02:18 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01065" HREF="msg01065.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: The great crusade....</A></strong>, Jon A. Lambert <a href="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</a>, Tue 16 Jun 1998, 03:33 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01073" HREF="msg01073.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: The great crusade....</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Tue 16 Jun 1998, 17:17 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01080" HREF="msg01080.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: The great crusade....</A></strong>, Mike Sellers <a href="mailto:mike#bignetwork,com">mike#bignetwork,com</a>, Tue 16 Jun 1998, 18:39 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01059" HREF="msg01059.html">[MUD-Dev] The great crusade....</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Tue 16 Jun 1998, 01:18 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="01049" HREF="msg01049.html">[MUD-Dev] (fwd) Temporality and user actions in MUDs</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Mon 15 Jun 1998, 18:26 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="01047" HREF="msg01047.html">[MUD-Dev] OT: Announcement</A></strong>, s001gmu <a href="mailto:s001gmu#nova,wright.edu">s001gmu#nova,wright.edu</a>, Mon 15 Jun 1998, 16:57 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01048" HREF="msg01048.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: OT: Announcement</A></strong>, Nathan F Yospe <a href="mailto:yospe#hawaii,edu">yospe#hawaii,edu</a>, Mon 15 Jun 1998, 18:17 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01019" HREF="msg01019.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Databases: was Re: skill system</A></strong>, John Bertoglio <a href="mailto:alexb#internetcds,com">alexb#internetcds,com</a>, Sun 14 Jun 1998, 04:53 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>