<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] [Fwd: Re: brainstormer] --> <!--X-From-R13: Dvpuneq Ibbypbpx <YnHveNqvny.cvcrk.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 06:24:58 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 35A7D90C.7C5D#dial,pipex.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: multipart/mixed --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] [Fwd: Re: brainstormer]</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:KaVir#dial,pipex.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="msg00163.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00165.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00168.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00156.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00164">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00164">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00164">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] [Fwd: Re: brainstormer]</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] [Fwd: Re: brainstormer]</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: Richard Woolcock <<A HREF="mailto:KaVir#dial,pipex.com">KaVir#dial,pipex.com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 14:28:44 -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> Been invited to participate in a graphical mud. Having spoken with the person in charge (Thoric, author of Realms of Despair (Smaug)) I feel he might be able to make some interesting contributions to this list. If not, I then I will provide you will updates as to the progress of the mud as best I can. KaVir. </PRE> <BLOCKQUOTE><BR><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="80%"> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:scryn#game,org">scryn#game,org</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: brainstormer</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: Terri <<A HREF="mailto:jade#surfsouth,com">jade#surfsouth,com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 23:09:47 -0400</LI> <LI><em>Cc</em>: <A HREF="mailto:kavir#dial,pipex.com">kavir#dial,pipex.com</A>, <A HREF="mailto:darker#darker,com">darker#darker,com</A></LI> <LI><em>Delivered-To</em>: d#-kavir#dial,pipex.com</LI> </UL> <PRE> >X-Authentication-Warning: hometown.idirect.com: derek owned process doing -bs >Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 13:20:23 -0400 (EDT) >From: Derek Snider <derek#idirect,com> >To: Terri <jade#surfsouth,com> >Subject: Re: brainstormer > >On Mon, 6 Jul 1998, Terri wrote: > >> Wednesday night, 10 pm. E.S.T.. on ROD. >> Important meeting to attend if you're interested in taking mudding into the >> 21st Century. > >Is that everyone that's invited? BTW... I wrote up a little propsal thing >that should probably be mailed to everyone involved... take a gander: > > > > Proposal for a Multiplayer Interactive Medieval Internet based game > =================================================================== > > The idea is to create a "virtual" reality of sorts without any hard >limits or boundries. As flexible as possible without compromising speed and >efficiency. > > The user interface to this environment would be irrelevant. It could >start out as a text based interface, and gradually move towards something >more impressive and marketable. Ideally it would support whatever interface >the end user had -- from a simple text interface, to a high end state of the >art VR interface complete with 3D headset, VR gloves, speech recognition, >gesture recognition, the whole nine yards. > > The model for this would be a client-server one. The server would >maintain the existance of a virtual world in a complex fashion, and the >client would display a representation of that world based on the hardware >the user owned. For the initial text based interface, this is something >that could be handled by the server, or possibly another process running on >the server side of things. > > Part of the key to making a full VR based interface possible would be to >have only the minimum data flow between the client and server. While at >first it may seem impossible with current bandwidth limitations, I believe >this can be easily overcome by the proper design. > > My idea for this would be for everything to be based on an >object-oriented inheritance model. You first define all the common base >elements... your building blocks, and then build everything else from those. >Rather than describe everything in detail, you describe only the >differences -- take a sword for example: you could say that sword 'Y' is >the same as sword 'X', except that it is a little longer. > > Everything in the virtual world would be relative to something else... >much how the real world works. When someone describes something, they >always say, "it's like this... but..." No one describes things in absolute >detail, "It is composed of 50 gazillion electons..." > > When designing something that is a copy of real life, ie: a "virtual >reality", I believe it is best to try and follow the same trends and >patterns as real life. The concept to me is simple and obvious. > > Also, we need to keep in mind that while flashy graphics, cool music, >sound effects, bells and whistles may make a good first impression, you need >content to keep the people interested. It is always good to start with the >good content, and save the bells and whistles for last, (though it's a good >idea to keep them in mind while designing). > > It is a person's own imagination which is the most powerful tool. Hence >the written and spoken word tends to paint a more vivid and lasting picture >in one's mind than some flashy graphics. A very important part of this >project will be a good story. It needs to be oozing with good creative >content. > > Thinking ahead, it would be amazing to have good speech generation, and >to have NPCs in the game able to hold conversations, to tell stories, to >reveal important details. > > The key to this project is putting together different technologies which >already exist, and in fact have existed for many years now. These >technologies are becoming more and more refined... and I feel it is time to >combine them into something amazing. > > Things like speech recognition, speech synthesis, gesture recognition, >artificial intelligence, a kick-ass 3D engine, 3D headsets, digital stereo >audio, role playing games, medieval fantasy, mythology, the occult, magic, >witchcraft, multi-player interaction, the Internet, computers, a dream, and >most importantly people to take all these things, and make the dream a >reality. > > I believe all of these ingredients are within reach. The technology is >there, and constantly improving. By the time we are closing in on >completion, current technology will only be that much better, computer >systems that much faster, home bandwidth that much wider, and the Internet >that much more reliable. As I said, the most important part is the people >to make this happen. I believe that we have those people -- ourselves. > > Realms of Despair was a small dream. I enjoyed playing MUDs while in >school, and got really involved and addicted to one. Many thousands of >people have become addicted to RoD -- it is something to be proud of. >All this from a small dream... a little hobby I did in my spare time. > > Of course it would have been nothing without the people that helped me >keep it going, and the players that played it, and encouraged us to keep on >improving it. In the four years that RoD has been up, we have touched >likely over 100,000 people. The release of the SMAUG code has only brought >us that much more respect and recognition. There are close to a hundred >SMAUG muds out there, and with the release of the next version I can only >see SMAUG becoming that much more popular. > > I believe that RoD was a great learning experience for all of us. I >know I learned more of my advanced coding skills from working on the MUD, >and it has put me in touch with a lot of great people. Let us also not >forget all the dedicated players. > > We must now look towards the future, and see what it holds for us. I >cannot forsee the MUD in its current state growing too much bigger. The >biggest problems with the MUD are that: (1) We cannot make a living from >running it, and therefore the MUD must come second to making a living. (2) >Internet Direct owns the name (Realms of Despair), the domainname (game.org) >the machine it runs on, and provides the bandwidth -- if we could make money >from the MUD they'd probably take a big cut. (3) The DikuMud license >agreement prevents profitting in any way. (4) What would stop everyone from >playing a free mud? (5) I don't really believe we should profit from RoD >since that was never our intention in the first place. > > > </PRE> <HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="80%"></BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <!--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="msg00163.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Alternate UOL's</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00165.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: You think users won't number crunch and statistise your MUD?</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00168.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: My "mud" server, A.T.O.M. and the coming design notes</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00156.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Alternate UOL's</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00164"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00164"><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="00171" HREF="msg00171.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Physics Lesson</A></strong>, John Bertoglio <a href="mailto:alexb#internetcds,com">alexb#internetcds,com</a>, Sat 11 Jul 1998, 21:59 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00175" HREF="msg00175.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Physics Lesson</A></strong>, Mike Sellers <a href="mailto:mike#bignetwork,com">mike#bignetwork,com</a>, Sat 11 Jul 1998, 22:38 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00184" HREF="msg00184.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Physics Lesson</A></strong>, Ling <a href="mailto:K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk">K.L.Lo-94#student,lboro.ac.uk</a>, Sun 12 Jul 1998, 23:29 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00168" HREF="msg00168.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: My "mud" server, A.T.O.M. and the coming design notes</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Sat 11 Jul 1998, 21:42 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00164" HREF="msg00164.html">[MUD-Dev] [Fwd: Re: brainstormer]</A></strong>, Richard Woolcock <a href="mailto:KaVir#dial,pipex.com">KaVir#dial,pipex.com</a>, Sat 11 Jul 1998, 13:24 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00156" HREF="msg00156.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Alternate UOL's</A></strong>, S. Patrick Gallaty <a href="mailto:choke#sirius,com">choke#sirius,com</a>, Fri 10 Jul 1998, 22:19 GMT <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="00163" HREF="msg00163.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Alternate UOL's</A></strong>, Felix A. Croes <a href="mailto:felix#xs1,simplex.nl">felix#xs1,simplex.nl</a>, Sat 11 Jul 1998, 12:59 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00179" HREF="msg00179.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Alternate UOL's</A></strong>, Jason Goodwin <a href="mailto:wgoodwin#iquest,net">wgoodwin#iquest,net</a>, Sun 12 Jul 1998, 00:30 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00180" HREF="msg00180.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Alternate UOL's</A></strong>, Ben Greear <a href="mailto:greear#cyberhighway,net">greear#cyberhighway,net</a>, Sun 12 Jul 1998, 22:19 GMT </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>