----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrick Dughi" <dughi@IMAXX.NET> > Why are so many muds out there textbook cases for Monty-Haul > campaigns? (http://villa.lakes.com/JamesStarlight/CampaignTypes.html) An interesting question, and one Im surprised hasnt been voiced before. (I have a very bad memory, so feel free to correct me ;)) One of the reasons why I gave up mudding (as a player) was I got sick of those kinds of MUDs where these kind of things went on. I think that the type of people it tends to attract are what you could label as the "Immature Gamer" set. Im not referring to age of course :) Just the mentality. Funnily enough it seems to be more prevalent amongst the DIKU MUDs than any other MUD type - at least from my experience this has been the case. I could list some reasons, but my brain refuses to function properly at this moment :) Its leaving me standing with vague notions. I was thinking more to do with the codebases and not relating to the kinds of people DIKU MUDs attract. > People actually extoll these as virtues! "The best fighter in the > game has a +96 hit/damage sword, but Joe is putting in a new zone with a > +127 mace! Haha!". Like this is something to be proud of? Really I think it is just part of human nature. For example why do some people feel the need to buy the latest and greatest computer/car/ whatever and then lord it over others? Im not going to head off into Freudian territory (mainly cause Id just completely embarass myself as I didnt do psychology :)), but Ive heard that its usually relating to some feeling of inadequacy or insecurity that the "offender" has. > This isn't shocking really, I've seen it happen in pen & paper > dungeons, and I understand the way that it's hard to reverse earlier > actions at a time when their impact is not yet realized. Same here. Not that Ive played any in quite a few years, used to belong to a club where certain members had a bad habit of either DMing these kinds of campaigns, or complaining when they were in a campaign that involved a bit of thought, smaller rewards, and NPCs that were designed to be more than fireball and arrow fodder. > Is it just that we (as a mud community) can't get players via a > zork-like level of difficulty and gameplay, and that we have to rely on > virtual gold and endless electronic copies of emperor's robes? I would love to see such MUDs flourish... Then maybe I would do a little playing and not just stick to the coding. > Is anyone out there running a campaign which caters to those > seeking a challenge, not just those seeking a quick buzz? Do you have > player retention? How do you stop/slow a nearly-inevitable turn towards > massive stats, and the Next Big Thing (tm)? Id love to say yes, but Ive just started writing my own mud from the ground up. Only just finished the network code - so dont think that Im going to be able to answer that one for a few years yet :) > Boy, 9 am is no time to come up with an ob-circle. Brain hurts > from thinking. And 2am is probably not the time to be replying - so I apologise if I lose my train of (semi)logical thought at any stage :) Jazz -- +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | FAQ: http://qsilver.queensu.ca/~fletchra/Circle/list-faq.html | | Archives: http://post.queensu.ca/listserv/wwwarch/circle.html | +---------------------------------------------------------------+
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