Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post - The Art of Seach

scandum · 11-19-2010, 08:43 AM

Right now TMC lists the largest number of MUDs with a pretty large data set, making it the #1 site to go to to find a MUD. New mud listings might create better data sets, but they'd have a hard time getting more than 100 muds to register. I think MSSP has the best chance of breaking that monopoly, and provide a (hopefully) better data set.

MSSP is my brainchild, and I maintain the specification page which ties all work by other parties together. Some people call it a community effort as mud listings and mud servers can do as they please, but when it comes down to things I typically have the final say so far, though I try to make everyone happy.

One thing I think is missing is for MUDs to define their gameworld's ERA and SUBERA. Wikipedia has a list of them though it'd probably be best to make a list. Most MUDs will probably pick Medieval as their ERA and Dark Ages as their SUBERA, but I think it'd be interesting for players looking for a very specific era.

Another issue is the HISTORIC RIGOR, right now MUDs tend to use the MSDP sub-genre to define either the era or how closely modeled after historic earth their world is. Low Fantasy takes place in a setting that closely resembles written history, while High Fantasy (Like Lord of the Rings) shares little to nothing with written history. I'm not sure if HISTORIC RIGOR is the most sensible variable name.

Another variable would be SCIENTIFIC RIGOR to describe if scientific principles and consistency of the game physics and theme play a large roll. Lord of the Rings would probably be High or Medium, while Disc World and AD&D based games would have a low scientific rigor, and even scifi genres like StarWars would be Medium, and in some cases even Low if a setting has magic, FTL, telepathy, superpowers, werewolves, etc. This so MUDs don't have to list themselves as Hard Fantasy or Soft Science Fiction in their subgenre.

11-19-2010, 08:43 AM	#13
scandum Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 315	Re: The Art of Seach - Categorization of MU*s Right now TMC lists the largest number of MUDs with a pretty large data set, making it the #1 site to go to to find a MUD. New mud listings might create better data sets, but they'd have a hard time getting more than 100 muds to register. I think MSSP has the best chance of breaking that monopoly, and provide a (hopefully) better data set. MSSP is my brainchild, and I maintain the specification page which ties all work by other parties together. Some people call it a community effort as mud listings and mud servers can do as they please, but when it comes down to things I typically have the final say so far, though I try to make everyone happy. One thing I think is missing is for MUDs to define their gameworld's ERA and SUBERA. Wikipedia has a list of them though it'd probably be best to make a list. Most MUDs will probably pick Medieval as their ERA and Dark Ages as their SUBERA, but I think it'd be interesting for players looking for a very specific era. Another issue is the HISTORIC RIGOR, right now MUDs tend to use the MSDP sub-genre to define either the era or how closely modeled after historic earth their world is. Low Fantasy takes place in a setting that closely resembles written history, while High Fantasy (Like Lord of the Rings) shares little to nothing with written history. I'm not sure if HISTORIC RIGOR is the most sensible variable name. Another variable would be SCIENTIFIC RIGOR to describe if scientific principles and consistency of the game physics and theme play a large roll. Lord of the Rings would probably be High or Medium, while Disc World and AD&D based games would have a low scientific rigor, and even scifi genres like StarWars would be Medium, and in some cases even Low if a setting has magic, FTL, telepathy, superpowers, werewolves, etc. This so MUDs don't have to list themselves as Hard Fantasy or Soft Science Fiction in their subgenre.