[MUD-DEV] a shrinking pool of players?

[Bryce Harrington]

On Tue, 15 Feb 2000, Sellers, Michael wrote:
> And yeah, I think the number of people actively playing text muds is
> probably shrinking.  I think this is the last echo of what happened to the
> paper-game industry in the 1980s and early 1990s.  Too bad too. (FWIW, one
> of my pipedreams along these lines is to put out paper RPG
> systems/supplements as a labor of love, without worrying about turning a
> profit, as that's almost impossible to do these days in that part of the
> industry.  Who knows, maybe someday...)

Hmm, I've been thinking along the same lines...  Do you think a paper
RPG rules system, if strongly associated with a computerized version of
the game rules, might do better?  I.e., would the fact that there are
umteen thousand players of such and such online rpg give a publisher
enough incentive to perhaps try publishing the rules system behind it?
In this situation, would be be wise to keep the game rules "secret"
until the publisher can publish them, or would it be better to open them
freely, thus gaining public feedback and enhancement (and maybe users)?

--
Bryce Harrington
bryce @ neptune.net




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