Re: Do MUDs need to be "brought into the 21st century"
Regrettably, those clients, as well pretty much any web GUI for a MUD I've seen (mine included), fall into the category of "refuse to look like a normal game".
I think what will really move us forward is a portal site with a very visual web app (minimal text in its "newbie mode") and at least 6-7 participating games that can pool resources together for promotions on web gaming portals and for some actual paid advertising.
Ideally, this web app will also double as a Facebook app and will support different views branded after different games so each game can deep-link directly to their own version of the app.
I already have a lot of code to contribute towards such an app. I have a that supports compression and GMCP. I have a websocket proxy that can be used to connect the app to any telnet server. I have a minimap renderer that can be passed location data, render surroundings, and call back the parent frame with click events (to support movement via click). I am also running a fantasy art server that can be asked for "a gargoyle" at 200x200 res, and will return an image for it.
I have too much going on to be a lead on such a project, but I can also contribute free hosting (with MySQL & SVN for development), basic maintenance, and maybe some web design work.
|