[MUD-Dev] Re: Mud websites

[Matt Chatterley]

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On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Holly Sommer wrote:

> I think they have many good uses -
> 
> For games with their own (hi)story, they provide a background, something 
> to "read up on" before entering (or after, too), much like the glossaries 
> in Dune and the auxilliary text for JRR Tolkein's works.

Yeah. Although I'd wibble a little at information /for/ existing players
(unless it exists in a form which is unsuitable for actually being on the
mud itself - eg PDF). Mind you, hypertext interlinked documentation is
nice. I've actually been pondering trying to add 'hypertext' of sorts to
our manual pages, and documentation, to make life easier.

Current idea is that each page contains links (either marked in the text
body, or at the end - the latter is easier). After the page is displayed
(with linked text highlighted?), one can enter the number of a link to be
taken there (a numbered list will appear at the end). Something of that
order.
 
> They can present the newbie MUDder with basics of the mechanics of the game.

And of mudding. If you were to say that this is probably the main way to
find new mudders, you'd most likely be right. A lot of people will search
the web for 'fantasy RPG' materials, but many won't know muds exist. A lot
of the net attention is focussed on the web at the moment.
 
> They can be an information repository for builders (this is the primary 
> use of Grok's website).

Thats quite a good one, yeah. Coding and building resources, linking to
other pages, and providing documents and examples. Although myself I am
attempting to provide these things /on/ the mud again, that wouldn't be
entirely practical for all servers.
 
> They can be advertisements - search engines don't archive MUD servers, 
> but they can archive web pages with addresses in the body of the page.

Aye. 

> They can be a "photo album" for online personalities to present their rap 
> sheets/bios/etc.

A slightly 'disconnected' from the mud use, but a fun one - communication
for its own sake. :)
 
> What's a  waste of a MUD website? "Here we are, here's a telnet:// link." 
> Not actually a waste - more like an underutilization.

It is a waste to me; it won't interest anyone who looks at it, unless
they're a hardcore mud fan, in which case, they are fairly unlikely to be
looking at it ;)

[Snip]

- -- 
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.." -John Lennon (Imagine)

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