[MUD-Dev] RP=MUSH/PG=MUD

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <9707011741.87du at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA>, on 07/01/97 
   at 07:52 PM, cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA (Chris Gray) said:

>[Chris L:]

>:I presume you are writing of the model where there is a standard (and
>:pretty well consistant with the current telnet-style) text window
>:around which are assoicated graphical gee-gaws, such as an image of
>:the character's body to and from which may be dragged iconic
>:representations of EQ to implement the "wear" and "take off"
>:semantics, or images of the various containters (sacks, bags, chests,
>:pouches etc), from which objects may be similarly addded or removed?
>:Other simple extensions would have animated images of objects which
>:could be explored graphically with the results displayed in the text
>:window and/or on the object itself.  Next up is the ubiquitous sound
>:-- something I think is a generically All Round Bad Idea for MUDs,

>Well, there doesn't have to be pretty pictures of everything
>(otherwise there is no way I could produce such an interface!). 

I could imagine having a default blob grahoc for unspecified
objects...

>I
>think the real need is for a point-and-click way of doing most common
>things. 

Another method I didn't mention is making the actual text from the MUD
point'n'clickable Web/HTML style.  Instead of typing "go door" or
similar, just click on the word "door" in the description of the
curent room.

>...The first
>obvious step is movement and looking around. Next would come the
>common verbs applied to objects in the room and inventory. 

Both of these would seem easily approached by making clickable text as
above.  I could even see drag'n'dropping text blobs to move inventory
about and such.

>[Question:
>presumeably only "visible" objects would be available for clicking,
>and non-visible or scenery objects would have to be typed in - is
>there any better way?]

One idea is above.  Note:  I'd *really* dislike a model where etnering
a room populated a container in your client with little icons
representing all the interactable objects in the current room.  Using
the live/hyper-linked text as above would seem a possible and logical
address for this -- especially if you didn't denote the majority of
the "hot" items with colours, underbars etc.

>:...A key problem is that an increasing percentage of players
>:are both unable and actively unwilling to read or type (not always
>:poor education -- think foreigners as well).  Whether we actually want
>:to encourage such to play our games is another question.

>I think its clear that those people will eventually have a MUD-ish
>game of some sort that they can play. Why shouldn't it be one of
>ours? Sure, we can choose to not cater to those folks, but I think it
>is important to not make judgements on a game until you've used it. 

I'm raising two points here:

  1) Making your MUD available/accessable to the illiterates of your
current language/culture.

  2) Making your MUD available/accessable to foreign language users,
either by providing national language support, or a simplified or
dictionary query-able interface for those with good language skills
but poor English skills.

I suspect that chasing #1 is a perilous slope into a dark and infinite
pit.

Chasing #2 as far as NLS'ing the game world is a massive engineering
effort (can you say multi-byte characters, multi-byte srings, UNC,
UTF8, variant string lengths, national-specific colour choices (red
doesn't mean danger in all cultures for instance, or green "Okay")?).

Chasing down #2 as far as providing a simplified interface or
query-able interface seems much more possible.

>I
>now find it very difficult to play a MUD with just a text interface -
>it is just so much, well, harder!

<<Raw telnet is my preferred MUD client...>

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...