I didn't want to make it sound like people was the only thing to a successful mud. But it is a large part....you can have great code kick-a** features but if no-one uses it.....
Just my opinion is all..... Thalor Crimson Gate Crimsongate.kyndig.com 4555 >>>>-----Original Message----- >>>>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On >>>>Behalf Of Richard Lindsey >>>>Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 9:47 AM >>>>To: KJM; [email protected] >>>>Subject: RE: Miserable Failure or Unsurpassed Success >>>> >>>>I think one important question that needs to be asked is >>>>how each person measures success... Does success mean you >>>>have an enormous player base, at the potential cost of >>>>doing what you actually want to do in favor of what the >>>>mortals want you to do? What if they said they wanted some >>>>godly spells that do 10000 damage per cast for 5 mana, or >>>>they're going to go find some other insane mud that will >>>>give them that kind of power? >>>>Is success defined by the craftsmanship you put into the >>>>world you've created? If you based your mud on your own >>>>made up storyline, how deeply involved did you get with the >>>>details of the area maps, and how detailed did you get with >>>>different aspects of the story as to who's against who, >>>>where did this particular race evolve from, etc? If you >>>>based yours on a book or movie series, how close to the >>>>series did you truly remain, and in the process, did you >>>>scrap most of the more "fun" >>>>aspects of the game in order to enforce this predetermined >>>>roleplay, or did you give your mortals more choice in how >>>>they decided to play it out? Miserable failure or >>>>unsurpassed success is more a state of mind rather than an >>>>award that can be given or received... There are, of >>>>course, such rewards, being listed in top 10 lists or >>>>having rave reviews from players and sites like >>>>mudconnector and mudmagic... But then are also the >>>>intangible rewards of knowing that out of all of the >>>><insert theme here> muds out there, yours is the *best*, >>>>even if the players don't really think so :) >>>> >>>>I think a good admin should always be willing to take >>>>player and staff commentary in order to improve their mud; >>>>after all, giving in on some smaller issue may bring in >>>>more players overall to help share your vision of whatever >>>>world you've created... It's sort of supply and demand... >>>>you may not want to drop the price on your product because >>>>you won't make as much money, but if dropping the price of >>>>it a few bucks gets thousands more people to buy it, you >>>>can make more money in volume than in per-item sales :D >>>>Similarly, if you're willing to compromise on smaller >>>>aspects of your vision, you may attract a wider range of >>>>people that all come to enjoy the unaltered aspects of it... >>>> >>>>Personally, I code for the fun of it and for the >>>>experience... The only formal classes I've taken were Apple >>>>IIe BASIC in 8th grade, and Turbo Pascal in High School :D >>>>I learned by diving into the code, and I must have read >>>>through every single line of ROM at least 8-10 times in the >>>>decade I've been working with it... Recently I've taken up >>>>PHP for web programming, and it is so utterly close to C >>>>that I picked it up in a matter of a couple of weeks (plus >>>>is super easy to use for work with >>>>databases) :D Now I'm moving on to Javascript and >>>>ActionScript for Flash, and am probably going to move to >>>>Java from there... >>>> >>>>In response to Daniel's email that just came in while I was >>>>typing this, I've gotta say that I'm fairly positive that >>>>MUDs will never be as popular as the visual MMORPGs, just >>>>because people love their eye candy :D But at the same >>>>time, those games can never really offer the level of >>>>roleplay that you can get in a text-based world, and there >>>>are still thousands of people that are out for that >>>>aspect... Also, I think people are attracted to the >>>>chat-room-type feel of a MUD, being more of a social >>>>environment than in a visual-oriented game where you spend >>>>so much time running around the landscape that a lot of >>>>messages tend to scroll on by unnoticed, and you're >>>>generally only chatty with your small group of >>>>adventurers... Plus they don't have the immortal >>>>involvement you get on a lot of MUDs, with various quests >>>>and trivia games and random spellups, restores, etc... >>>>Players love that stuff :D So I think there will still be a >>>>place for MUDs for a long time to come... >>>> >>>>I do, however, think it would be an awesome idea to develop >>>>a freeware, open-source MMORPG and get it out there... It >>>>would definitely bring in more challenges for the coders, >>>>writing clients to handle a lot of the processing and take >>>>the load off of the servers, but it could be designed with >>>>all kinds of modern-day principles in mind, such as >>>>database usage, perhaps server load balancing and >>>>multithreading, and compression techniques to keep >>>>bandwidth usage at a minimum... Keep us posted if you do >>>>decide to do something along those lines :D >>>> >>>>Richard Lindsey. >>>> >>>>-----Original Message----- >>>>From: KJM [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>>Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 8:33 AM >>>>To: [email protected] >>>>Subject: RE: Miserable Failure or Unsurpassed Success >>>> >>>> It seems like the way to success is to have players >>>>already on the mud. >>>>I >>>>can't tell you how many >>>>people I've seen come on look around, see no-one, and >>>>leave. I've seen mediocre muds with tons of players. I >>>>code my mud for the fun of it, because it seems no matter >>>>how much I advertise or have my (small but loyal) players >>>>vote for us, my playerbase doesn't get any bigger. Do it >>>>for yourself. >>>>Enjoy this little piece of world you can call your own. >>>>And if you get people to enjoy it too, great! >>>>If not, sit back in a world where you can be called a god >>>>and relax :P Sure, I'd love to have more People stop by and >>>>play but I'm not going to let that get too me (too >>>>much) >>>>:P hehe >>>> >>>>The hardest part of coding/running a mud is getting people >>>>to come and play. >>>> >>>>-K (AKA Thalor) >>>>Crimson Gate >>>>Crimsongate.kyndig.com 4555 >>>> >>>>>>>>-----Original Message----- >>>>>>>>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of >>>>>>>>Daniel O'Neal >>>>>>>>Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 9:21 AM >>>>>>>>To: [email protected] >>>>>>>>Subject: RE: Miserable Failure or Unsurpassed Success >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>This is a hard question honestly. Personally I'm going >>>>the "start >>>>>>>>with stock, rip everything I don't like out and fix >>>>that, and add >>>>>>>>tons of features to it". To be honest, I did tons of research, >>>>>>>>checked out the big muds to find what I liked about them, and >>>>>>>>checked around to see what the players liked. From >>>>there, I started >>>>>>>>implementing on Rom (flavor of my choice, easiest to >>>>change imho). >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>Treat the mud as a marketable service, treat it like >>>>you want to >>>>>>>>make money off it, even if you never will. >>>>>>>>Consider advertising, via mudmagic, top mudsites, etc. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>-----Original Message----- >>>>>>>>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of >>>>>>>>Jesse >>>>>>>>Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 8:34 AM >>>>>>>>To: [email protected] >>>>>>>>Subject: Miserable Failure or Unsurpassed Success >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>Features are great, and coding them can be a lot of fun... >>>>>>>>but what good is a feature-rich MUD when most of the >>>>features are >>>>>>>>rarely (or never) used? >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>Most of us on this are the admin of a MUD (maybe even >>>>more than just >>>>>>>>one). >>>>>>>>Some of us run successful games while others just code >>>>for fun and >>>>>>>>don't care if there's a dedicated player base. My question is: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>What is it that separates a successful game from an >>>>unsuccessful >>>>>>>>one? >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>Do you start with a stock system, attract a player >>>>base, and then >>>>>>>>modify the game democratically based on what the >>>>players want? Or >>>>>>>>do you design everything, release it as playable, and hope that >>>>>>>>people like it? Another question, >>>>>>>>also: In what timeframe can a MUD be considered to be >>>>a success, or >>>>>>>>a failure (1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, >>>>>>>>5 years, 10 years)? >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>Someone should write a guide called: 10 Steps to a >>>>Successful MUD >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>-----Original Message----- >>>>>>>>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of >>>>>>>>Valnir >>>>>>>>Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 9:07 AM >>>>>>>>To: [email protected] >>>>>>>>Subject: Re: Re[2]: Quiet >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>I actually created a throwing option for our MUD >>>>sometime last year, >>>>>>>>but it wasn't used much. In the last month I updated it >>>>to allow >>>>>>>>mobs the ability to throw objects at characters also, and also >>>>>>>>enabled the ability for characters to throw objects >>>>into the next >>>>>>>>room, and thru portals. The object >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>has to be of an exploding nature though, and it causes >>>>room damage. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>- Valnir >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>-- >>>>>>>>ROM mailing list >>>>>>>>[email protected] >>>>>>>>Unsubscribe here ->>> >>>>>>>>http://www.rom.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rom >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>-- >>>>>>>>ROM mailing list >>>>>>>>[email protected] >>>>>>>>Unsubscribe here ->>> >>>>>>>>http://www.rom.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rom >>>> >>>>-- >>>>ROM mailing list >>>>[email protected] >>>>Unsubscribe here ->>> >>>>http://www.rom.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rom >>>>-- >>>>ROM mailing list >>>>[email protected] >>>>Unsubscribe here ->>> >>>>http://www.rom.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rom
