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KaVir · 02-11-2009, 05:43 AM

On the MUD-DEV website, J.C. Lawrence wrote "I see the definition of MUD being rather like a blob of black ink, recently dropped into a bucket of still water. You can definitely see where the black blob is, but as you move away from there, well, its still inky, but less so. Just where does the ink stop and the water begin (especially seeing as the Ink is a water suspension)? It is moot. It is a multi-dimensional sliding scale. The centre is undoubtedly a MUD. The definition of where the exact centre is is questionable. The definition of whether any point not on the centre is a MUD or not is more or less questionable."

I think there is much truth in that. Where you draw the line very much depends on personal opinion - because there isn't any clear point where a line can be drawn. So it's really up to you to decide which games are appropriate and which are not. However as you've asked for others to give their personal views, these are mine...

The graphical MUDs (EverQuest, WoW, Guild Wars, etc) are simply MUDs with custom clients. Many text-based muds now offer custom clients as well, usually with a certain amount of graphics, so where do you draw the line? What if Sony offered an alternative client which allowed you to play EverQuest through a text-based interface? What if someone released a mud client which allowed Diku derivatives to be played graphically?

IRC and talkers are not MUDs. There is usually no game, no world, no concept of persistant identity, etc. I have occasionally seen roleplaying games run via a talker-style interface, sometimes with small amounts of code support (eg dice rollers, character sheets, etc). At some point they'd become MUDs, but we're back to that blob of ink...

MUSH, MUCK, MUSE, etc, are codebases derived from TinyMUD, in the same way that Merc and Circle are codebases derived from DikuMUD. They are all MUDs. The same for scratch-written MUDs - MUD is really a genre, not a specific implementation.

Most browser games I've seen are not really MUDs, as they're typically either single player, non-persistant, or the interaction between players isn't real-time. It's certainly possible to have browser MUDs, but I wouldn't like to see all browser games being added here.

02-11-2009, 05:43 AM	#10
KaVir Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Name: Richard Home MUD: God Wars II Posts: 2,052	Re: What happened to Materiamagica??? On the MUD-DEV website, J.C. Lawrence wrote "I see the definition of MUD being rather like a blob of black ink, recently dropped into a bucket of still water. You can definitely see where the black blob is, but as you move away from there, well, its still inky, but less so. Just where does the ink stop and the water begin (especially seeing as the Ink is a water suspension)? It is moot. It is a multi-dimensional sliding scale. The centre is undoubtedly a MUD. The definition of where the exact centre is is questionable. The definition of whether any point not on the centre is a MUD or not is more or less questionable." I think there is much truth in that. Where you draw the line very much depends on personal opinion - because there isn't any clear point where a line can be drawn. So it's really up to you to decide which games are appropriate and which are not. However as you've asked for others to give their personal views, these are mine... The graphical MUDs (EverQuest, WoW, Guild Wars, etc) are simply MUDs with custom clients. Many text-based muds now offer custom clients as well, usually with a certain amount of graphics, so where do you draw the line? What if Sony offered an alternative client which allowed you to play EverQuest through a text-based interface? What if someone released a mud client which allowed Diku derivatives to be played graphically? IRC and talkers are not MUDs. There is usually no game, no world, no concept of persistant identity, etc. I have occasionally seen roleplaying games run via a talker-style interface, sometimes with small amounts of code support (eg dice rollers, character sheets, etc). At some point they'd become MUDs, but we're back to that blob of ink... MUSH, MUCK, MUSE, etc, are codebases derived from TinyMUD, in the same way that Merc and Circle are codebases derived from DikuMUD. They are all MUDs. The same for scratch-written MUDs - MUD is really a genre, not a specific implementation. Most browser games I've seen are not really MUDs, as they're typically either single player, non-persistant, or the interaction between players isn't real-time. It's certainly possible to have browser MUDs, but I wouldn't like to see all browser games being added here.