[MUD-Dev] On socialization and convenience

[J C Lawrence]

On Sat, 23 Jun 2001 02:48:51 +0100 
Ian Collyer <ian.collyer at i12.com> wrote:

> J C Lawrence wrote:

> Write a pseudo-POP3 server that can be queried by any POP3
> compliant email client but is in fact just a method for giving
> external visibility to in-game personal messaging and message
> boards.

While this is the approach I prefer, it leaves the same problem of
having to store that content on your systems rather than being able
to offload it to the user or something he's paid for.

Quota limits for MUD-Mail accounts?

> Allocate all characters a <charactername>@mymud.com style dummy
> email address on character creation.

You can't expose this or it will become an abuse vector.

> Voila! For some relatively simple emulation code and minimal
> storage overhead you have now made integrated in-character
> communication available outside of the MUD. Even better if replies
> can be translated back into in-game communications.

Yeah, this is my preferred approach.  There are a number of neat
integration plays you can make with this, everything from in-game
message carriers (go wild, make up fantastical creatures/economies
surrounding message delivery).

> It could serve as a useful retention tool keeping players informed
> of MUD events even when they have not played for some time.

This requires them to configured their email clients to poll your
POP3 service.  While not a technical problem on your end, most
common mail clients do not have the capability to poll and suck mail
from multiple POP servers.  

Worse is properly handing From: address mapping back into the game
world systems.  Big uglies fast there.

--
J C Lawrence                                       claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                          http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/
The pressure to survive and rhetoric may make strange bedfellows
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev