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Old 03-07-2011, 10:14 PM   #6
Throttle
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Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: The inevitability of GUIs in text-based mudding

Depending on the extensiveness of the GUI, I think it can turn a game into something other than a MUD. Some of the more modern ones look and play more like online roguelikes, and while the terminology does not specifically state that "text-based" is a requirment, that property is what everyone identifies a MUD by. If a game has an online client on their website that allows you to play their MUD with a more tidy visualization for stats and such, but is still fully playable with no disadvantages on a traditional telnet-based client, I don't think it loses any of its "MUD qualifications". If, however, it must be played through such a client and features things like a graphical playing field, a map, sound effects that are crucial to gameplay or anything of the sort, I think it stops being a MUD. The acronym stopped meaning "online game" once online games with graphics came out, and has meant "text-based game" ever since.
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