Brian Hartvigsen wrote:
> How realistic should a MUD be?
<<snip>>
My reply may border on philosophy, but here
it is. I feel that most people (I know I do) mud
because they want to 'escape' reality. It is a
way to relax and change one's mind. So having
to shave, shower, eat, go to work, etc probably
would have little appeal. To me, 'realism' does
not apply to this concept but rather to the ease
with which you can do things on the MUD and
the 'feasibility' factor. On the former, I think
Circle does pretty well. Most commands make
sense, even for a beginner, so eating for example
can be done by anyone with half a brain.
The latter part is where I think some effort is
required. Some aspects of this were addressed by
Brian, Patrick, et al (i.e. the ability to do 2M damage,
carry 5M coins on you, etc)
As someone mentioned already, players that come
to mudding fall in a wide variety of temperaments.
Some like chatting, some like fighting, some like
the idea of a virtual world (normally fantasy, but
doesn't need to be). But, the majority do have one
thing in common: if they want to stick around and
get the 'full benefits' of the game, they must level.
That is where we, as developers, get our leverage
to 'enforce' whatever realism we choose. If a 'realism'
feature is implemented, then it must
1) affect game play (read levelling ability) in some
way or other
2) not be an absolute must in order to play.
As an example, assume you set up your mud such
that you can buy shops. So some people do, but
what for? The very nature of the game makes it that
some people always log on alone (time difference, etc).
So simple 'trading' certainly is not the answer. In this
case, I think it a waste of effort. But, let's say you
implement 'ranks' (Prince, Duke, etc) and that those
ranks allow players to access resources such that
maybe they can kill bigger mobs (i.e. levelling easier).
Let's also assume that to hold these ranks, some
'status' must be achieved and maintained (lands,
shops, a certain 'cash flow', assets etc). In this case,
I think it is worth the time. For those that want to
chat, they'll do their normal stuff (including levelling)
and the others can take advantage of the added feature.
One could even think that some 'trading' could be
in place such that players could try to 'bankrupt'
another (hence 'unranking' him).
Finally, one thing that irks me to no end, is the
'techno-mudder'. One that knows every stat in the game
and when introducing himself actually quotes his HR/DR.
In that respect, Circle fails miserably. I'd favor seeing a
mud where those things are much more qualitative.
That would indeed add realism to the game, in my view.
Claude Belisle
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ensure that you have read the CircleMUD Mailing List FAQ: |
| http://qsilver.queensu.ca/~fletchra/Circle/list-faq.html |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 04/10/01 PDT