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the_logos · 10-24-2003, 02:05 PM

Yeah, we do get a lot of that here don't we? Bit stupid though. There are a billion ways to play muds and there is a type of mud that tries to cater to nearly all of those ways somewhere out there.

Text mud people are generally WAY more petty than the larger general (and mostly graphical) mud, unfortunately, particularly when it comes to developers. You sure don't see most graphical developers running around slamming each other's games. Although to be fair you don't see that among the more successful text muds either I guess. It's mainly the wannabes that feel the need to attack other muds for whatever religious-style reason du jour they've concocted today.

I would LOVE to see a text mud board for serious developers only, where the goal is productive discussion about producing text muds that can be successful (whether free or commercial) rather than promoting or attacking a particular style of mud because of that style. An emphasis on reality rather than wishful thinking would exist too. (No stupid arguments about whether builders are more valuable than coders for instance. The market has already answered that question definitively, like it or not.) Mainly, just a discussion among professionals (used in a loose sense. Not meang in the developing-for-money sense) concerned with results not whether a "good mud" should be RPI or hack n' slash or other such inane arguments.

Yeah, fair enough. I probably shouldn't have posted it. This board (and other text mud boards) just frustrate the #### out of me due to some of the Zealots and Priests that inhabit it. They make it next-to-impossible to have a worthwhile discussion on mud development. Hmm, perhaps a moderated mailing list like mud-dev, though with an explicit focus on text. (as mud-dev is mainly now full of people wanting to make the next Everquest sequel, and who have 0 chance of managing it.)

Yeah, again, fair enough. I guess I can think of two that are run like that (one of which I used to admin on and left). The one I used to admin on is run so poorly it hasn't grown since I left in disgust in 1997 right after Achaea opened.

I sometimes forget it's possible to eek out a commercial existence while doing a pretty ****-poor job of running a mud. I'd rephrase to say that a company can't run its muds like fiefdoms if it expects to maintain growth but I also don't really know of any commercial text mud companies that have significant revenue (say, at least 6 figures annually) and are growing quickly besides us, so there's not much evidence to draw on.

--matt

10-24-2003, 02:05 PM	#26
the_logos Legend Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Mill Valley, California Posts: 2,305	Yeah, we do get a lot of that here don't we? Bit stupid though. There are a billion ways to play muds and there is a type of mud that tries to cater to nearly all of those ways somewhere out there. Text mud people are generally WAY more petty than the larger general (and mostly graphical) mud, unfortunately, particularly when it comes to developers. You sure don't see most graphical developers running around slamming each other's games. Although to be fair you don't see that among the more successful text muds either I guess. It's mainly the wannabes that feel the need to attack other muds for whatever religious-style reason du jour they've concocted today. I would LOVE to see a text mud board for serious developers only, where the goal is productive discussion about producing text muds that can be successful (whether free or commercial) rather than promoting or attacking a particular style of mud because of that style. An emphasis on reality rather than wishful thinking would exist too. (No stupid arguments about whether builders are more valuable than coders for instance. The market has already answered that question definitively, like it or not.) Mainly, just a discussion among professionals (used in a loose sense. Not meang in the developing-for-money sense) concerned with results not whether a "good mud" should be RPI or hack n' slash or other such inane arguments. Yeah, fair enough. I probably shouldn't have posted it. This board (and other text mud boards) just frustrate the #### out of me due to some of the Zealots and Priests that inhabit it. They make it next-to-impossible to have a worthwhile discussion on mud development. Hmm, perhaps a moderated mailing list like mud-dev, though with an explicit focus on text. (as mud-dev is mainly now full of people wanting to make the next Everquest sequel, and who have 0 chance of managing it.) Yeah, again, fair enough. I guess I can think of two that are run like that (one of which I used to admin on and left). The one I used to admin on is run so poorly it hasn't grown since I left in disgust in 1997 right after Achaea opened. I sometimes forget it's possible to eek out a commercial existence while doing a pretty ****-poor job of running a mud. I'd rephrase to say that a company can't run its muds like fiefdoms if it expects to maintain growth but I also don't really know of any commercial text mud companies that have significant revenue (say, at least 6 figures annually) and are growing quickly besides us, so there's not much evidence to draw on. --matt