Re: The inevitability of GUIs in text-based mudding
As far as I'm aware, Aardwolf and I are the only muds that offer any sort of official MUSHclient plugin - so far, at least. We both use hotspots, and I have a few animated icons. Other graphical plugins I've seen were either experimental, or private.
I wouldn't suggest trying to duplicate a MMORPG like EQ or WoW using MUSHclient - it's still really a text-based client.
But for people who wish to have a GUI comparable with Archons of Avenshar, BatMUD, Maiden Desmodus, Primordiax, etc, clients like MUSHclient and Mudlet offer a way to very quickly and easily produce a custom interface, while still benefiting from the range of features that mudders expect from a powerful modern client.
Developing your own custom client from scratch is a major project. But creating a custom GUI for MUSHclient or Mudlet is something you can do in a matter of days, and you could have the basics in place in just a few hours. And that's why I feel things are going to change - the entry barrier has dropped so low that anyone who actually wants a custom GUI can now create one extremely quickly.
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