[Newworlds]

RPEI, a new standard in Roleplay.

We are going to the standard of RPEI - Role Play Enforced Intensively.

We welcome anyone to join this standard who meet the following qualifications. These qualification have been shown in some circles to provide a higher standard in Role Play Intensity and Enforcement of quality roleplay in the genre:

1. Your MUD must be Roleplay Enforced.
2. Your MUD must be 18+ age requirement.
3. Your MUD must have standard roleplayable Guilds as found in D&D style gaming.
4. Your MUD must have some form of Resurrection. Intense serious roleplay is found around death and re-immersion of a player into a game. You may have Permadeath, but only as a secondary result, if used as the first form of death, roleplay is squashed as is continuance of conflict.
5. Your MUD must allow channels to deal with OOC issues AND these channels must have be tunable so serious immersion for most, if not all players, is possible.
6. Your MUD must have standard Levels. Level distinction is paramount to good quality conflict and class distinction.
7. Your MUD must limit the use of colors and other distracting banner type code.
8. Your MUD must not have distracting OOC prompts.
9. Your MUD must have a staff to deal with roleplay and game issues.
10. Your MUD must allow PK, but only with serious roleplayable reasons to separate your MUD from a strict PK MUD.
11. Your MUD must have some form of global communication with groups (Guilds, Clans, etc.) and person to person telepathy. This feature promotes and expounds interactive roleplay rather than promoting singular/loner style gaming.

Join the RPEI standard by mailing our quality control team that will review your game and if warranted grant you the coveted RPEI stamp of quality roleplay.

For more information on the RPEI standard and certification, ask in this thread or mail the control team.

[the_logos]

I don't mean to sound naive, but is this a joke or are you actually serious?

[Milawe]

I'm pretty sure its a joke. If it isn't, I'm sorry for laughing out loud.

[prof1515]

If so, it should be under MUD Humor.

[Milawe]

Maybe it's not a joke.

New Worlds, you forgot to put in contact information. I'm interested in RPEI (pronounced ra-pay?) and am sad there is no one to tell me more.

[Mabus]

It didn't read like a joke to me. I read through it because I like to keep up on things going on in the community. Knowing the new acronyms can be handy.

Our gaming world is planned to be more role-play then RPE, but less restrictive then an RPI, but many of the listed conditions in the OP's post would not fit our world.

I suppose we might have to fall under the RPEI2 conditions...

[newbie]

That's great, You create a newstardard not disimilar to RPI because you don't fit into the RPI catergory and then claim you're the Quailty Assurance Team.

RPEI it just sounds hilarous.

So this standard isn't about Roleplay or its merit but the features you have inplace that in your opinon enhance roleplay right?

[Newworlds]

Originally Posted by Mina Maybe it's not a joke. New Worlds, you forgot to put in contact information. I'm interested in RPEI (pronounced ra-pay?) and am sad there is no one to tell me more.

I've submitted your request to the RPEI Team. Someone will contact you with information on how to have your game certified.

[the_logos]

I'm creating a new standard called the USRPEI, which stands for "Ultra Sweet Roleplay Enforced Intensively!"

It's an improvement on the RPEI "standard" (sorry, I can't say that without chuckling a little) insofar as you can't allow in anyone under the age of 30, you're required to have at least 2000 levels, four flavors of ice cream in-game (no more, no less), and elves are strictly forbidden. Also, you must ban the Swiss from playing. Those neutral bastards can't be allowed to pollute the USRPEI standard. Let them go climb the Matterhorn and leave the MUDing to the rest of us.

The certification team is my dog Nixon. You send her a letter. She sniffs it. She barks once for "accepted" twice for "I smell a f-cking elf" and three times for "I have to pee now."

Once you've received the seal of approval, you will have the right to call yourself a USRPEI. Of course, nobody can stop you from calling your MUD a USRPEI anyway as, much like RPEI or RPI or RPG or MMO or MUD, it is not an actual standard, but you can pump up Nixon's ego by subscribing to it anyway (hint: soak your letter in beef broth before sending it for better chance of meaningless acceptance).

[prof1515]

Originally Posted by the_logos (hint: soak your letter in beef broth before sending it for better chance of meaningless acceptance).

Might that not cause a lot of exciting barking leading you to believe your dog suffers from a urinary tract problem?

[Mabus]

Originally Posted by the_logos I'm creating a new standard called the USRPEI, which stands for "Ultra Sweet Roleplay Enforced Intensively!"

Rats! Only two flavors of ice cream...

Foiled again!

[the_logos]

Originally Posted by Mabus Rats! Only two flavors of ice cream... Foiled again!

As it so happens, the USRPEI standards certification team provides a comprehensive package of design services to help you achieve and retain USRPEI certification. In this case, we would send out a team of consultants (there would be a cost associated with this of course) who would help you pick out exactly the right flavors of ice cream (2 in this case) to round out your current RPICI (Roleplay Ice Cream Index). We have one guy on board that does nothing but implement ice cream flavors into MUDs. You should see his Rocky Road implementation. It's delicious.

--matt

[the_logos]

(Incidentally, I hope you don't take my joking around too personally, NewWorlds. It's just that a standard established by the staff of a single MUD is meaningless, particularly when it comes with such seemingly random, arbitrary requirements, many of which have nothing to do with what the standard implies it is concerned with - roleplaying in this case.)

[Delerak]

I agree this is kind of silly. And you've deviated pretty far from what an RPI mud is. So it shouldn't even have RPI in the word.

[Newworlds]

Originally Posted by the_logos (Incidentally, I hope you don't take my joking around too personally, NewWorlds. It's just that a standard established by the staff of a single MUD is meaningless, particularly when it comes with such seemingly random, arbitrary requirements, many of which have nothing to do with what the standard implies it is concerned with - roleplaying in this case.)

It is good to see you caught on.

[Threshold]

Originally Posted by Delerak I agree this is kind of silly. And you've deviated pretty far from what an RPI mud is. So it shouldn't even have RPI in the word.

Hahahahaha. This is a new low. Now someone cannot even have those 3 letters in an acronym - even if the three letters are not consecutive?

Does this mean non-RPIs cannot even call themselves "Not Role Play Intensive" since R P an I are in that phrase? Paradox!

You must work for the US Patent Office.

[Delerak]

Originally Posted by Threshold Hahahahaha. This is a new low. Now someone cannot even have those 3 letters in an acronym - even if the three letters are not consecutive? Does this mean non-RPIs cannot even call themselves "Not Role Play Intensive" since R P an I are in that phrase? Paradox! You must work for the US Patent Office.

I'm not going to expect someone to understand my view on MUDs use of the RPI acronym. Especially one that probably doesn't play RPI's.

[Delerak]

Also. You shouldn't jump to conclusions on a forum. I never said he couldn't use the RPI acronym, but he's an acryonym and pawning it off as a hybrid of an RPI mud. Honestly it's silly, either it's an RPI or it's a normal MUD.

[Mabus]

Originally Posted by Delerak Honestly it's silly, either it's an RPI or it's a normal MUD.

Can you define "normal MUD"?

[Delerak]

Originally Posted by Mabus Can you define "normal MUD"?

Not an RPI mud.

[Newworlds]

Hate to change the topic slightly, but it really grates me when people call RPI or RPEI acronymns. They aren't in the true form of the word. They are initials (or if you want to be technical initialisms). An acronymn is a pronouncable word (like MUD) not RPI or FBI, etc.

Secondly, I once wrote a short definision on the difference between the RP and Non RP muds and here it is:
------------------------
A. Roleplay mud: Each character is unique. It acts, reacts, and makes choices based on the character and its surroundings.

B. Any other type of mud: You may go in and out of character at any time. Talk about life, dinner, football, or the base roll of your weapon within the game environment.

There are pros and cons to both systems, it is a matter of choice. Whether a game is type A or Type B is dependant more upon the playerbase than the game system. The term Hack and Slash doesn't necessarily define that it is not a roleplay game, but rather that the focus of the game is about killing and leveling vs. character interaction.

Nearly every roleplay mud, and I would go as far as to say every roleplay mud (unless it is a non combatative MUSH) can be turned into hack and slash by virtue of the player's choices.
------------------------

This whole argument over RPI, RPEI, and on is silly in the extreme and comes from people trying to call their mud better or elitist. There would be no other reason for it. I started this thread as a parody as a better way to show how comical it can become.

Now quit arguing and get out there and have some fun!

[prof1515]

Originally Posted by Newworlds This whole argument over RPI, RPEI, and on is silly in the extreme and comes from people trying to call their mud better or elitist. There would be no other reason for it.

That's not why the term RPI came into use. It wasn't an attempt to brand any MUD "better or elitist". It was about creating a term to describe a specific set of characteristics, characteristics which were shared by a small number of MUDs otherwise lost in a sea of others with which they differed significantly. The charges of elitism came about from MUDs which did not fit those characteristics after those MUDs began using the term, apparently because they viewed it as a means of denoting superiority. The purpose of the term becomes hindered when it is used as a substitute for existing terms.

No doubt there are some who use the term RPI to denote some form of superiority however that would be as historically inaccurate a use of the term as suggesting it was created out of some sense of elitism. It would be like someone calling a motorcycle a mini-van and then taking offense and accusing mini-van manufacturers of elitism for objecting to the inaccurate use of the term. But if half the motorcycle dealerships started calling their bikes mini-vans, can you imagine how frustrating it would be for people honestly trying to buy a mini-van? Can you see how frustrating it would be for mini-van dealers if people started showing up and asking them why their mini-vans had four tires instead of two? Just as a mini-van and a motorcycle are sufficiently different to warrant different terms to describe their characteristics, so too do RPI MUDs differ from other kinds of MUDs and assorted text-based games.

Jason

[Delerak]

Originally Posted by prof1515 That's not why the term RPI came into use. It wasn't an attempt to brand any MUD "better or elitist". It was about creating a term to describe a specific set of characteristics, characteristics which were shared by a small number of MUDs otherwise lost in a sea of others with which they differed significantly. The charges of elitism came about from MUDs which did not fit those characteristics after those MUDs began using the term, apparently because they viewed it as a means of denoting superiority. The purpose of the term becomes hindered when it is used as a substitute for existing terms. No doubt there are some who use the term RPI to denote some form of superiority however that would be as historically inaccurate a use of the term as suggesting it was created out of some sense of elitism. It would be like someone calling a motorcycle a mini-van and then taking offense and accusing mini-van manufacturers of elitism for objecting to the inaccurate use of the term. But if half the motorcycle dealerships started calling their bikes mini-vans, can you imagine how frustrating it would be for people honestly trying to buy a mini-van? Can you see how frustrating it would be for mini-van dealers if people started showing up and asking them why their mini-vans had four tires instead of two? Just as a mini-van and a motorcycle are sufficiently different to warrant different terms to describe their characteristics, so too do RPI MUDs differ from other kinds of MUDs and assorted text-based games. Jason

Yes, quoted for truth.

[Milawe]

Originally Posted by Delerak Yes, quoted for truth.

ROFL! Says the guy who claims that anything other than an RPI is a "normal MUD". Funny, funny. They're not an RPI, so they should all be lumped into the same category.

And you guys wonder where the elitism stamp comes from!

Seriously, I doubt anyone created the term RPI to be elitist. It's just evolved to that. RPI, like just about everything else, has gone through growing pains to be what they are now.

[Milawe]

Originally Posted by prof1515 It would be like someone calling a motorcycle a mini-van and then taking offense and accusing mini-van manufacturers of elitism for objecting to the inaccurate use of the term. But if half the motorcycle dealerships started calling their bikes mini-vans, can you imagine how frustrating it would be for people honestly trying to buy a mini-van? Can you see how frustrating it would be for mini-van dealers if people started showing up and asking them why their mini-vans had four tires instead of two? Just as a mini-van and a motorcycle are sufficiently different to warrant different terms to describe their characteristics, so too do RPI MUDs differ from other kinds of MUDs and assorted text-based games. Jason

Here's the difference. A mini-van dealer can define exactly what a mini-van is in non-vague terms that is not subject to interpretation or opinion.

A mini-van has more than 4 seats.
A mini-van has removable seats.
A mini-van runs on 4 wheels.
A mini-van has a standard car engine.

Of course a mini-van dealer would be offended if someone claimed a motorcycle was a mini-van.

However, say like I create a van that's smaller than standard vans but bigger and longer than mini-vans. It also has 4 wheels, it also has removable seats, and it also has a standard car engine. It also has a cup-holder for every seat. It has a built in TV, and it has Bose surround sound stereo systems. They've however, removed the sliding doors and the regular doors and replaced them with cool Lamborghini-like doors, because that would be totally cool mini-vaness. Then I chose to call my van a Mini-Van Elite, aka as the MVE. Then, I go ape-bonkers if ANYONE tried to categorize my MVE as a mini-van, or anyone tries to categorize their mini-vans as an MVE. Then, Mercedes makes a mini-van that has everything my mini-van has but they make it with the cool Mercedes logo and a few extra gee-gaws. Well, I'll allow them to call their van an MVE. Wait a minute. Ford has a mini-van with at least 75% of my features, but I don't like the people who drive Ford cars. I'm SURE Ford's vans simply just can't be as good as mine. They CANNOT use the MVE term. Ford asks me what they have to do in order to use the MVE stamp on their mini-vans. I reply with vague instructions such as "Make a van with more luxury features." Ford asks, "What luxury features?" I reply, "Maybe some more cupholders." Ford says, "Our drivers don't like more cupholders." I reply with, "I guess your drivers shouldn't drive an MVE." Ford tries again by trying to find the industry standard for an MVE. Ford can't find one. I still insist that it is an exclusive standard for luxury mini-vans, but I never produce a list of what an MVE is. MVE drivers just know what an MVE is and find it incredibly frustrating that others do not.

Now, I could resolve this simply by issuing a precise guide to what an MVE is, but instead of doing that, I write up something like:

MVE
You must be a mini-van.
You must have lots of luxury upgrades. All features must be designed towards luxury.

Then some MVE owners go around telling the world that MVE are the best cars. Everything else is a normal car.

Can you see how frustrating that might be for the people who make mini-vans, and people who drive mini-vans? Can you start to see how this might seem like a "club" and not a standard?

Seriously, I have no vested interested in what anyone does with the term RPI, especially not the administrators of those muds. I think I wouldn't be involved at all if I didn't find it quite ludicrous that a player thinks he wants an RPI but gets ridiculed for thinking he wants one because of his preferences. The person didn't seem to take offense, though, so no harm, no foul!

Don't take me too seriously, though, Prof. I admire that you are at least TRYING to create a specific standard that is so much less vague that what others have posted. RPI Muds could benefit a lot from sitting down and figuring out what they are in a way that can be communicated to the rest of the mudding world.

Until then, RPI is just going to seem like a confusing list of personal preferences rather than an industry standard to me. I'm totally down with that, too!

[Newworlds]

Originally Posted by prof1515 That's not why the term RPI came into use. It wasn't an attempt to brand any MUD "better or elitist". It was about creating a term to describe a specific set of characteristics, characteristics which were shared by a small number of MUDs otherwise lost in a sea of others with which they differed significantly. The charges of elitism came about from MUDs which did not fit those characteristics after those MUDs began using the term, apparently because they viewed it as a means of denoting superiority. The purpose of the term becomes hindered when it is used as a substitute for existing terms.

Interesting. Where would one find this information? All the posts I've seen here speak the opposite, hence the confusion.

[Threshold]

I was going to post, but I can't add anything more than Mina's last post.

That was awesome.

[Jazuela]

Dodge Tomahawk motorcycle concept car in review

Add a sidecar and let a friend sit on the handlebars, and you've got a mini-van. According to your criteria.
Car engine: check.
4 wheels: check
removable seats: check.
more than 4 seats: check.

Then there's also the Handi-Van bus that has all the above, but is -also- not a minivan. And how about most SUVs on the market these days? They have every one of those criteria, and are not minivans. And of course normal-sized vans meet all those criteria, and are also not mini-vans.

THen, there's the mini-vans that don't have car engines. Does that mean they're -not- mini-vans? Or what about the ones that don't have removeable seats? Maybe they have seats that are moveable..they slide back to give more room in the middle, or fold down to make a back-seat-bench..but the seats themselves can't be taken out of the vehicle. Does that mean they're not mini-vans?

Thing is, RPIs all come with certain criteria, and also have any of a list of other criteria. At least a couple, not necessarily all. Non-RPIs are not required to come with that initial criteria, and may or may not include any, let alone some, or all, of the additional criteria. For example, and RPI will have permanent death. Now, that doesn't mean that any game with permanent death is an RPI. But if it doesn't have permanent death, then it won't be an RPI. It will be something else. Does that make the RPI a better game? Not for anyone who doesn't want their characters to die. In fact I'd say the vast majority of gamers would scoff at a permanent-death game, and some might even say that no one in their right mind would ever play one. So who in that case is the elitist, I wonder? The people who like the permanent death RPI, or the people who reject the idea of permanent death and make fun of anyone who likes it?

[Delerak]

Originally Posted by Mina Here's the difference. A mini-van dealer can define exactly what a mini-van is in non-vague terms that is not subject to interpretation or opinion. A mini-van has more than 4 seats. A mini-van has removable seats. A mini-van runs on 4 wheels. A mini-van has a standard car engine. Of course a mini-van dealer would be offended if someone claimed a motorcycle was a mini-van. However, say like I create a van that's smaller than standard vans but bigger and longer than mini-vans. It also has 4 wheels, it also has removable seats, and it also has a standard car engine. It also has a cup-holder for every seat. It has a built in TV, and it has Bose surround sound stereo systems. They've however, removed the sliding doors and the regular doors and replaced them with cool Lamborghini-like doors, because that would be totally cool mini-vaness. Then I chose to call my van a Mini-Van Elite, aka as the MVE. Then, I go ape-bonkers if ANYONE tried to categorize my MVE as a mini-van, or anyone tries to categorize their mini-vans as an MVE. Then, Mercedes makes a mini-van that has everything my mini-van has but they make it with the cool Mercedes logo and a few extra gee-gaws. Well, I'll allow them to call their van an MVE. Wait a minute. Ford has a mini-van with at least 75% of my features, but I don't like the people who drive Ford cars. I'm SURE Ford's vans simply just can't be as good as mine. They CANNOT use the MVE term. Ford asks me what they have to do in order to use the MVE stamp on their mini-vans. I reply with vague instructions such as "Make a van with more luxury features." Ford asks, "What luxury features?" I reply, "Maybe some more cupholders." Ford says, "Our drivers don't like more cupholders." I reply with, "I guess your drivers shouldn't drive an MVE." Ford tries again by trying to find the industry standard for an MVE. Ford can't find one. I still insist that it is an exclusive standard for luxury mini-vans, but I never produce a list of what an MVE is. MVE drivers just know what an MVE is and find it incredibly frustrating that others do not. Now, I could resolve this simply by issuing a precise guide to what an MVE is, but instead of doing that, I write up something like: MVE You must be a mini-van. You must have lots of luxury upgrades. All features must be designed towards luxury. Then some MVE owners go around telling the world that MVE are the best cars. Everything else is a normal car. Can you see how frustrating that might be for the people who make mini-vans, and people who drive mini-vans? Can you start to see how this might seem like a "club" and not a standard? Seriously, I have no vested interested in what anyone does with the term RPI, especially not the administrators of those muds. I think I wouldn't be involved at all if I didn't find it quite ludicrous that a player thinks he wants an RPI but gets ridiculed for thinking he wants one because of his preferences. The person didn't seem to take offense, though, so no harm, no foul! Don't take me too seriously, though, Prof. I admire that you are at least TRYING to create a specific standard that is so much less vague that what others have posted. RPI Muds could benefit a lot from sitting down and figuring out what they are in a way that can be communicated to the rest of the mudding world. Until then, RPI is just going to seem like a confusing list of personal preferences rather than an industry standard to me. I'm totally down with that, too!

What? You just turned a simple analogy into a chaotic mess of poo.

He was simply saying that you can't and shouldn't call a normal stock DIKU/ROM/CIRCLE an RPI Mud. Why? Because there ARE standards for RPI muds. There is an entire website dedicated to RPI's. RPIMUD Network @ RPIMUD.com. There have been numerous discussions on what an RPI is, and the huge difference between an RPI and a normal "run of the mill" mud. These include: Permanent death, descriptions instead of names (short descs, main descs, long descs). A background for your character. An account system. A highly innovative emote system where you can target many different grammatical forms to a fellow player. Roleplaying enforced obviously. And the list goes on for several other things, but these are the main ones. Your long-winded rant about the mini-van/motorcycle analogy means nothing, that's not the point of the analogy. If you call a stock DIKU mud an RPI you're going to be a laughing stock amongst serious RPI mud players. Period.

That's all I have to say on the matter for now.
-D

[Milawe]

Originally Posted by Jazuela Dodge Tomahawk motorcycle concept car in review Add a sidecar and let a friend sit on the handlebars, and you've got a mini-van. According to your criteria. Car engine: check. 4 wheels: check removable seats: check. more than 4 seats: check. Then there's also the Handi-Van bus that has all the above, but is -also- not a minivan. And how about most SUVs on the market these days? They have every one of those criteria, and are not minivans. And of course normal-sized vans meet all those criteria, and are also not mini-vans. THen, there's the mini-vans that don't have car engines. Does that mean they're -not- mini-vans? Or what about the ones that don't have removeable seats? Maybe they have seats that are moveable..they slide back to give more room in the middle, or fold down to make a back-seat-bench..but the seats themselves can't be taken out of the vehicle. Does that mean they're not mini-vans?

Okay, please realize that I didn't go look up the ACTUAL definition of a mini-van. I slapped some down quickly to express a point. However, ALL mini-vans do fit the mini-van criteria listed above!

But I also want to point out that a van is not required to have removable seats!

Originally Posted by Jazuela Thing is, RPIs all come with certain criteria, and also have any of a list of other criteria. At least a couple, not necessarily all. Non-RPIs are not required to come with that initial criteria, and may or may not include any, let alone some, or all, of the additional criteria. For example, and RPI will have permanent death. Now, that doesn't mean that any game with permanent death is an RPI. But if it doesn't have permanent death, then it won't be an RPI. It will be something else. Does that make the RPI a better game? Not for anyone who doesn't want their characters to die. In fact I'd say the vast majority of gamers would scoff at a permanent-death game, and some might even say that no one in their right mind would ever play one. So who in that case is the elitist, I wonder? The people who like the permanent death RPI, or the people who reject the idea of permanent death and make fun of anyone who likes it?

Right, but what are the criteria for an RPI? That's the point. You state that there's the common demoniator. I'm just looking for what it is.

Permadeath might not make an RPI mud, but permadeath, enforced-RP, and permitting hobbits might! Of course RPI muds aren't going to be cookie cutter and have ONLY the the same features. The point is... what makes an RPI mud an RPI mud?

The scoffer is the person who is being elitist. I don't like permadeath for myself, but I can intellectually understand why someone might. Making fun of permadeath simply because one wouldn't play it is also elitism. However, insisting that permadeath is the ONLY way to play and all muds that do not have permadeath has unrealistic and un-immersive RP is also elitism. Putting down someone's playing preferences in order to tout your own is pretty much a form of elitism in my book.