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KaVir · 12-12-2003, 12:06 PM

Absolutely - those are the sort of things which are of significant importance to any starting mud. Unfortunately the only people able to ask such questions are those who no longer have much need for the answers. Indeed, those who would really benefit from such advice won't even be able to read the forums.

It doesn't seem to be the goal, true, but there is always some crossover. A mud without any ground-breaking features is less likely to attract or keep a large playerbase, after all. Subjects of discussion might include systems which keep players interested for longer, different types of coded support for newbies to stop them leaving after 10 seconds, "popular" features or styles of interface which make players from other codebases feel more comfortable, etc.

There would no doubt also be interest in how best to handle large playerbases - not just physically handling a large number of connections, but also in terms of gameplay; a mud needs to have enough things for everyone to do (eg some of the MMORPGs suffered in that there were not enough worthwhile locations in which to hunt mobs).

I ran a mud which easily filfilled Matt's requirements, long before he started working on Achaea - and had shut it down by the time you created Threshold - but that is not the point. I do not feel insulted, I simply feel that his new forum is counter-productive. His new "bio" requirement is certainly an improvement (in that it cuts out those who fill the other requirements without being of any benefit to the forums), but it also cuts out a huge percentage of the people who could provide valuable experience.

Stilton already provided some better alternatives. The approach used by MUD-DEV back when I first joined (you needed to be invited by another member) also worked quite well, although some sort of moderation is going to be required whatever approach is taken. Strict moderation is how I handle the Advanced Mud Concepts forum on here, and it manages to achieve an excellent signal/noise ratio IMO. But if the_logos really doesn't like taking our advice, perhaps he should ask his Armageddon members how they filter new players to determine which will be of benefit to their game? Armageddon is renowned for its roleplaying, after all, so they must be doing something right.

12-12-2003, 12:06 PM	#44
KaVir Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Name: Richard Home MUD: God Wars II Posts: 2,052	Absolutely - those are the sort of things which are of significant importance to any starting mud. Unfortunately the only people able to ask such questions are those who no longer have much need for the answers. Indeed, those who would really benefit from such advice won't even be able to read the forums. It doesn't seem to be the goal, true, but there is always some crossover. A mud without any ground-breaking features is less likely to attract or keep a large playerbase, after all. Subjects of discussion might include systems which keep players interested for longer, different types of coded support for newbies to stop them leaving after 10 seconds, "popular" features or styles of interface which make players from other codebases feel more comfortable, etc. There would no doubt also be interest in how best to handle large playerbases - not just physically handling a large number of connections, but also in terms of gameplay; a mud needs to have enough things for everyone to do (eg some of the MMORPGs suffered in that there were not enough worthwhile locations in which to hunt mobs). I ran a mud which easily filfilled Matt's requirements, long before he started working on Achaea - and had shut it down by the time you created Threshold - but that is not the point. I do not feel insulted, I simply feel that his new forum is counter-productive. His new "bio" requirement is certainly an improvement (in that it cuts out those who fill the other requirements without being of any benefit to the forums), but it also cuts out a huge percentage of the people who could provide valuable experience. Stilton already provided some better alternatives. The approach used by MUD-DEV back when I first joined (you needed to be invited by another member) also worked quite well, although some sort of moderation is going to be required whatever approach is taken. Strict moderation is how I handle the Advanced Mud Concepts forum on here, and it manages to achieve an excellent signal/noise ratio IMO. But if the_logos really doesn't like taking our advice, perhaps he should ask his Armageddon members how they filter new players to determine which will be of benefit to their game? Armageddon is renowned for its roleplaying, after all, so they must be doing something right.