Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post

visko · 02-21-2004, 03:58 PM

Ok prof1515, but I get to be the insane maniacal armsman tactical genius +2134087, who is truly psychotic and just wants to kill everything in a personal quest for total domination. I'll play it in character, I'll keep to the basic storyline, but you will all die by my hand. Repeatedly. And suffer horribly every time. I'll even emote the branding of your genitals and hot poker to eye part.

But....I don't think you want the insane psychopathic master of arms +2134087 on your MUD. You want to reenact your favorite fantasy novel, or create one of your very own based on the unique interactions of the people who MUD with you, and that's cool.

Just don't come to my MUD. And I won't go to yours. (Usually; sometimes it's fun to run in on a MUD with a bunch of thugs and beat the place bloody until we get banned, but my days as a cowboy are numbered. I'm too old for that stuff anymore.)

To address the "if it ain't RP, it's HnS", there is a MUD called Groundzero. Rarely is it alive anymore, because the learning curve is a bit steep and with the dropping off of MUDders who like to run around and hit things all day as their only means of entertainment, we simply don't get newbies anymore.

Groundzero doesn't save equipment. It reboots about every 90 minutes, depending on some hard-coded infrastructure that can (and should) be subverted occasionally. It has nothing to do with levelling, powereqing, etc. The entire point of the game is tactical combat. RP is *not allowed* simply because it has no place in the game, and because the average maturity level of anyone who plays there is far below that of an accomplished RPer.

I've been realizing the limitations of how deep you can get into the social aspects of a game without RP as of late; I'm mellowing out. However, not everyone is looking to have an in-depth conversation with a Lamia over in Old Thalos. For us, it's more interesting to play with ever-developing MOB AI, create large armies of players and MOBs, and go have a war or three to see what kind of combat tactics we can surprise the other guy with.

You talk about moving beyond the game itself, and I agree with you - it is possible to do so. But not just in an RP fashion; military tactics, spying, subversion, valor, strategy are also thought excercises that move above and beyond a simple interaction with a game. Instead of being reactive to the game, you take advantage of the inner structure of the game, at the code level through testing and experimentation. It's simliar to RP'ing with the entire world, but takes another path. The starting and ending points, in my opinion, are similar enough to be called the same.

This thread started with a different problem: bad MUDs. Our hero (and thread-starter) is simply expressing frustration with overzealous/extremist focuses on a specific way of playing the game, or a specific demographic of game-players. I think he's basically justified in his gripes, and to him I say: make yer own, keep looking, or go back to the MMORPG where WYSIWYG. Especially with the complex nature of MUDs, it's rarely even possible to hold to WYSIWIG, because even the IMPS don't know what some crazy 13-year-old is going to do tomorrow. And whether or not the code will be able to stand up to their intellectual ramblings.

-Visko

02-21-2004, 03:58 PM	#45
visko Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 98	Ok prof1515, but I get to be the insane maniacal armsman tactical genius +2134087, who is truly psychotic and just wants to kill everything in a personal quest for total domination. I'll play it in character, I'll keep to the basic storyline, but you will all die by my hand. Repeatedly. And suffer horribly every time. I'll even emote the branding of your genitals and hot poker to eye part. But....I don't think you want the insane psychopathic master of arms +2134087 on your MUD. You want to reenact your favorite fantasy novel, or create one of your very own based on the unique interactions of the people who MUD with you, and that's cool. Just don't come to my MUD. And I won't go to yours. (Usually; sometimes it's fun to run in on a MUD with a bunch of thugs and beat the place bloody until we get banned, but my days as a cowboy are numbered. I'm too old for that stuff anymore.) To address the "if it ain't RP, it's HnS", there is a MUD called Groundzero. Rarely is it alive anymore, because the learning curve is a bit steep and with the dropping off of MUDders who like to run around and hit things all day as their only means of entertainment, we simply don't get newbies anymore. Groundzero doesn't save equipment. It reboots about every 90 minutes, depending on some hard-coded infrastructure that can (and should) be subverted occasionally. It has nothing to do with levelling, powereqing, etc. The entire point of the game is tactical combat. RP is not allowed simply because it has no place in the game, and because the average maturity level of anyone who plays there is far below that of an accomplished RPer. I've been realizing the limitations of how deep you can get into the social aspects of a game without RP as of late; I'm mellowing out. However, not everyone is looking to have an in-depth conversation with a Lamia over in Old Thalos. For us, it's more interesting to play with ever-developing MOB AI, create large armies of players and MOBs, and go have a war or three to see what kind of combat tactics we can surprise the other guy with. You talk about moving beyond the game itself, and I agree with you - it is possible to do so. But not just in an RP fashion; military tactics, spying, subversion, valor, strategy are also thought excercises that move above and beyond a simple interaction with a game. Instead of being reactive to the game, you take advantage of the inner structure of the game, at the code level through testing and experimentation. It's simliar to RP'ing with the entire world, but takes another path. The starting and ending points, in my opinion, are similar enough to be called the same. This thread started with a different problem: bad MUDs. Our hero (and thread-starter) is simply expressing frustration with overzealous/extremist focuses on a specific way of playing the game, or a specific demographic of game-players. I think he's basically justified in his gripes, and to him I say: make yer own, keep looking, or go back to the MMORPG where WYSIWYG. Especially with the complex nature of MUDs, it's rarely even possible to hold to WYSIWIG, because even the IMPS don't know what some crazy 13-year-old is going to do tomorrow. And whether or not the code will be able to stand up to their intellectual ramblings. -Visko