>wooohoo, go write a novel on this 8)
>
>my 2 cents would include the fact that it is just pure randomness in terms
>of which MUD has more players. for example MUD A, regardless of code base
>nad of modifications, will attract more people to it, especially new mud
>players, who have never been on a mud before, just because it has on
>average 10-15 people logged in, when MUD B with all its special features
>and the fact that the admins spent a year modifying it, will not attract as
>many people because the initial group of people that start playing it
>averages about 1-3 people.
>Talkers experience this all the time.... one day a talker can have 50
>people on, and the next maybe 2-3 people and of those, 1 is idle for 5 hrs.
>Its sorta like the stock market in a sense.
>The player population of a MUD also creates a special atmospshere, and it
>is this atmosphere that keeps mudders coming back. There used to be a
>circlemud called bluemage.... which was online about a year ago, which was
>almost entirely stock.... although there were a few new areas, the only
>thing different about it was that players could gain levels in all 4
>classes (mag,war,cleric, theives), and thus practice every single skill the
>MUD had to offer..... other than that it was all stock , newbie daggers and
>all....
>the thing that made it differnet was that there were so many people on
>it... 4 am in the morning one could have about 20-40 people on..... people
>would go in groups of 6 or 7 and go after chesspieces on the chessboard and
>it was just fun and addicting.... compare this to a strange new world which
>looks like nothing u have ever seen before, and in addition only 1 lonely
>system admin , beggin u to stay on.
>
-dmitri
players
>>on at once, while I have to beg players to stay on. Smaug is a
>>bells-and-whistles mud base, its very featureful, but if you want to do
>>something other than what the Smaug programmers were thinking of, you are
>>pretty screwed. Thus, it can be very limiting. But thats Ok for "most"
>>Smaug administrators, because even though they wouldn't dream of touching
>>the code, they know something we in CircleLand don't: They know that a
>>generic mud base, generic areas, and a few non stock areas just for kicks
>>will attract a massive playerbase with little or no effort on the part of
>>the administrators. This is because there is a very different approach
>>between the way Circle and Smaug view the mud world. Circle says, "This is
>>a BASE for you to customize as you see fit, but it requires YOUR effort
>>and imagination to make it good". Smaug says, "We have every feature you
>>could ever need, and if you can think of another feature, you either don't
>>need it or we are already working on it. We require no thought or talent
>>to run or maintain, just unzip, configure, tweak (maybe), and go."
>>But I digress.
>>Basically what I am saying is that I used to get mad when a player would
>>come on, and then immediately quit out, usually after about 2 minutes of
>>activity. That player had maybe moved two rooms at the most, and in that
>>time had somehow mysteriously figured out that my mud sucked and moved on.
>>This used to piss me off, but now it doesn't because I learned what these
>>players were doing. They were logging in, seeing that my mud was somewhat
>>(re: completely) different from what they were used to, and then quitting
>>out because it wasn't worth it to them to learn a completely new way to
>>play. Seeing as I'd rather not cater to that class of mudder anyway,
>>these things don't both me anymore.
>>
>>> Everyone wants change, at least that's what they say. Lets go to a
>>> "different" mud, something that offers new features, new code. Ok, they
>>> go there, then you see:
>>
>>An interesting thing about the english language is thaht "different"
>>doesn't always mean "not the same". Eggs over easy and eggs benedict are
>>two "different" things, but eggs are eggs when you get down to it.
>>Players like different, so long as its "the same", which is a bad way of
>>putting it. The best explaination is an example: Taking a stock mud base
>>and adding on a couple of new areas to the stock zones is the kind of
>>"new" and "different" that the players like. Hopefully, you get the idea.
>>Note that when I say "stock mud base" I don't mean stock CircleMUD, which
>>sucks. I mean stock ROM, Envy, Merc, Smaug, etc because although I think
>>that they suck, they have alot more bells and whistles than stock Circle,
>>which makes them "better" to play on. If a stock mud could ever be any fun
>>to play on, which in my opinion it can't, but hundreds, if not thousands,
>>of mudders keep proving me wrong. Its probably from my background as a
>>player, most of my playing time was invested in a unique mud
>>(tdome.montana.com 5555 actually) that was deemed "a hard mud" because
>>learning to play it involved throwing out everything you knew about other
>>muds and starting fresh, for the most part. I *like* that sort of thing,
>>but sadly, most players apparently do not.
>>
>>>
>>> Someplayer gossips, 'This mud sucks, I can't figure out how to do
>>> anything!'
>>>
>>
>>Just another euphemism for "This mud isn't exactly the same as X other
>>mud, I can't deal!" So, the player can't deal, too bad, so sad. Read the
>>help files or go back to playing in the Smaug sandbox.
>>
>>> or the more infamous:
>>>
>>> Someplayer gossips, 'There's a bug here, you don't have X'
>>>
>>
>>My favorite response to this type of thing (as some people on the list
>>have witnessed) is "Of course we don't have X, this isn't some lame MERC
>>[Smaug, Envy, etc]" Seriously, my mud (Dark Pawns: pawns.guru.org 4000)
>>has been around (open to the public) for about three years now, and I feel
>>very privledged to work with the dedicated immortal staff of builders and
>>coders there, you really couldn't ask for a better group of people to
>>build a mud with. We only have one collective problem. We do things our
>>way. Always. If a mortal wants to suggest a new spell or feature, or make
>>a comment, we actively encourage them to use the bug, typo, and idea
>>commands, as well as mudmail. As a coder, I do serously maintain and
>>review those files (and the todo file) Because they are a serious source
>>of input for the mud, lots of "cool" things on Dark Pawns started out as a
>>one line comment in the idea file. Its a resource -- use it.
>>
>>> Then they leave, self-delete and go back to their merry, uneventful
>>> life of complaining on some stock mud about wanting something new. Its
>>> quite frustrating. So, the five dollar question of the day is how to keep
>>> players on your mud in general? There's hundreds upon hundreds of stock
>>> smaug muds, yet they have plenty of players. First people are biased
>>> because of the code, then they won't learn the new features. If mortals
>>> didn't make the game I would say kill them and be on with life.
>>> Don't get me wrong, I love the Circle code base, and have been using
>>> it for the past three years now. The problem is why won't new mortals
>>> use it?
>>>
>>
>>Well, aside from what I said before about generic mud players and generic
>>muds, if you want to try to improve the relationship your mud has to
>>prospective (new) players, you might want to consider the following:
>>
>>Is your character creation straightforward?
>> Complex or confusing character creation can turn off a player before he
>>or she even starts in your mud.
>>
>>Is you mud "newbie friendly"?
>> That is, are the newbie areas easy to find, are the mobs easy to kill
>>and the xp and eq decent? Are there copious help files? On DP, part of
>>our "get more players" strategy was to redesign the newbie areas to be
>>central to the city, and to make leveling from levels 1-10 "easy" (on a 30
>>level system). So basically 1/3 of your levels would be a no-brainer, and
>>you'd have to work for the rest.
>>
>>Is the mud in general straighforward?
>> Are all the areas that are avaiable for the players connected logically?
>>Are the player character classes in balance with the game? how about the
>>mobs? how about the equipment? Is the main city laid out in a simple
>>pattern that is easy to understand? Are there maps showing the locations
>>of the major stores and guilds readily available? Are there lots of help
>>files?
>>
>>
>>> Anyone else encountering problems such as this? If so, how are you
>>> handling it?
>>>
>>
>>Sure. I'd think most Circle-type muds have this type of problem, unless
>>they have been running for a long time or have been lucky. So far, my
>>efforts towards getting more players have apparently been successful,
>>there were alot of people on the other day. :) You just have to realize
>>that if you are going to try and run a "custom" type mud, you aren't going
>>to be able to make the players want to play if they aren't inclined to do
>>so. So the best you can do I think is to write code and build areas how
>>YOU want to do it, and while you are at it, try to make it as
>>user-friendly as possible.
>>
>>Well, this was kind of long and kind of rant-ish, but I hope I helped
>>someone out there.
>>
>>
>>-R
>>
>>R. E. Paret
>>Dark Pawns: pawns.guru.org 4000
>>WHOD: pawns.guru.org 4001
>>http://pawns.guru.org/pawns
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
>
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