[MUD-Dev] Re: Unix is a mud (Re: Ugh, IS Diablo a mud?)

[Adam Wiggins]

On Sat, 26 Sep 1998, Ola Fosheim Gr=F8stad wrote:
> Anyway, I would say that Unix has more MUD aspects to it than MUD-Dev, ev=
en
> than some MUDs according to some of the criterions I have seen on this li=
st.
> Unix is multi-user, has a wholist, buildingcapabilities, chatting, talk, =
etc
> etc. Different character (user) classes. Fightingcapabilities (freewheeli=
ng
> forks, diskspace usage, printer queues, hacking). It is also a persistent
> and changing world (filesystem). There is plenty to explore for the playe=
rs.
> :-P Unix also provides user descriptions (.plan) and stats.

Although I know that this example was chosen largely from silliness, it's
actually a pretty good point to discuss.  Most people wouldn't consider
UNIX a mud; yet it has most of the mechanics we would associate with one.
So, why not?  Putting aside lists of features for a second, as a player
I know straight away what's "wrong" with UNIXmud:

1. My personal sense of location is very limited.  There are three
major locations; my home directory and its subdirectories, the /tmp
directory, and the rest of the filesystem.  Thus just having seperate
locations with different names is not enough (note this mostly disqualifies
irc); they actually have to function differently enough to give the player
a sense of *being* someplace different.  Even on the most shoddy of stock
CircleMUDs gives me the sense of being in town, a newbie area, or a
dangerous area, even if I don't read the room descriptions.
One thing I might mention was that the /tmp directory at my university
was actually a minor social gathering point.  People would download large
files (game demos, images, sound files) into the /tmp directory because
they didn't have enough space in their home directories.  Then other users
would create empty files with names like "hey awiggins, can you give o+r
permissions to cooldemo.zip?"  Soon people got into the habbit of making
their files readable by everyone and would put up files with names like
"hey everyone, checkout cooldemo.zip".

2. My sense of other players is almost nonexistant.  Unless I specifically
go seeking the information with a 'w' command, finding out who is around
and what they are doing does not come to me.  There could be fifty
other users in the same directory as me but I'll never know it.  I should
be able to plop myself down somewhere and 'watch the world go by', as
it were.  If this is not the case then I hardly feel like I'm part of
a changing world, one which is not necessarily revolving around me and
my character.

3. My token/character/avatar is difficult to customize.  I get two
things, really: .plan and .sig.  Of course, both of these are quite popular
for this exact reason.

4. I have no long-term sense of change for my character.  Any changes wroug=
ht
upon it are direct changes made by the admin.

5. I have no feeling that there are other things going on elsewhere in the
world.  On even the lowliest of traditional muds you can log on and here hi=
gh
level players shouting at each other over the chat lines as they battle the=
ir
way through a tough area; you instantly get the sense that you are not only
not alone in the world, but that major things go on when you're not looking=
=2E
If the game is well-maintained, returning after a long absense should be
somewhat shocking, since many things about the world will have changed.
This could be as simple as administrators running a quest to destroy=20
the Great Lich of the Tower once and for all, and then next reboot substitu=
tion
a zone called "The Abandoned Tower" for the zone that was once "The Great
Lich's Tower."

All of these things can apply to the games we've been discussing.  C&C stri=
kes
out on 1, 3, 4, 5.  Dialbo fails on 3, 4, and 5, and is pretty shoddy on 1.
Quake does surprisingly well, failing on only 4 and 5.  TronMUD actually sc=
ores
*worse* than Quake, doing a pretty bad job of the first 3, although it's a
bit better on 4 and 5 than Quake.  PK MUD does reasonably well; I only see
a problem with 4, and a bit with 3 and 5.

By contrast, even the worst "Midgaard specials" fulfills all these criteria
with ease, as does Ultima Online.  I haven't played Meridan 59, but judging
by the dicussions I've heard here it qualifies easily as well.

> What's the bloody point in discussing a classification system without
> discussing the purpose? It is certainly more political than rational when
> one are motivated by usage but lists technical requirements. If the goal =
is
> usage, then the usage is also a suitable measure. There are usually many
> classification hierarchies that could be used to order a given set of
> phenomenas (in biology: genes, mating, geographical, looks, habitat, food
> etc). Purpose before classification is essential, at least in the rationa=
l
> world, maybe not in the political :P

Very much agreed.  All the criteria I mention above (from the player's eye
view) is totally independant of specific mechanics.  For example, in the
case of #4, I don't care whether I customize my token via buying clothes
dyed a certain color, or changing a text description, or loading up a new
3D model, as long as I can do it in *some* way.

Which leads me to believe that trying to classify what makes a mud by
such cut-and-dry criteria such as "must support X number of players" is
mostly fruitless.

> (Btw: AFAIK Electric Communities' new habitat is not server based, but st=
ill
> provides the same functionality. There you go, you technically oriented
> classifying racists.)

Diablo, C&C, and Quake are not (necessarily) server based either, yet still
get discussed here.  But, point taken :)

Adam