GUIs seem to be a staple in terms of ease-of-use when dealing with unfamiliar programs. That's usually because all of the options you have available to you are right in front of you, and no obscure command is necessary to dig out more options. Because of the text-based nature of most muds, we have a greater learning curve for new and different options simply because they're not immediately in a player's sight.
Many muds have a number of configuration options that can be modified by the player: Dimensions of the screen for automatic word-wrapping, ANSI color, channel options for chat and clan talk, wimpy settings, autoloot, etc. There are of course other options for administrative use: Wizlock, newlock, banning users, etc. These things are usually accessable through specialty commands that you can find through a help menu of some sort.
I propose that we blur the line between the game world and the administrative duties of that world. Doing such a thing would give us many of the advantages in ease-of-use and plain coolness that GUIs have, while still maintaining the automation benefits of our text-based environment.
For example, consider how a player might toggle ansi color in a typical mud:
One could give it an object or a switch in a configuration room in the player's head:
Administrators could also have their own in-game configuration area:
Something like this is, of course, much more complex than a few simple commands. But it makes up for it in neatness-factor and the ability to learn it quickly, given rudimentary knowledge of the pre-existing game world. One can also "see" all the options that are available to them in terms of the gameworld that they're familiar with, so there is no need to learn new interfaces for each command.
Thoughts?
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