Thread: MUD Reviews
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Old 10-03-2007, 06:36 AM   #21
Xerihae
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Name: Chris
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Re: MUD Reviews

I think if you were going to do an honest review you'd need to spend around 10 hours or a week playing the game, whichever would be longer for you. Because of the hugely different game mechanics in MUDs (like the remort system you mentioned) you would have to limit the review to certain categories such as impressions of character creation and the options available whilst doing it, amount of newbie help available, possible options in the game (remorts, end-game content etc), the general feel of the game, and the general view of the playerbase you managed to garner whilst doing the review.

Some of those sections can be helped by looking at a games website sometimes, as they'll often list things that happen later in the game you can include in your opinion of the options.

The major thing in my mind is to make sure that the reviewer is a fan of that type of game. Just like games magazines don't generally put someone who doesn't like RTS in charge of a Command & Conquer review, you can't really put someone who loves PK into a pure RP MUD and expect to get a fair review of it that would be of use to people who DO like that sort of game. For a review staff you'd need to make sure you had enough people to cover all the bases so you never end up sending someone who is immediately going to dislike the game because they have a different playstyle.
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