Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post

Kallekins · 01-15-2003, 05:06 PM

Every so often I like to try out different muds, just to see what else is out there. Several weeks ago, I decided to try one of the "Top Muds." I wanted to know if there really was very much difference in quality. I browsed through the top 20, and picked one that I wouldn't have to pay for. I won't tell which.

I actually played it for several days. First, because I wanted to know why a fairly small mud would get so many votes. Then later, because I wanted to know why a fairly lame mud would get so many votes. It was pretty mediocre in quality. Nothing too horrible to make me run away screaming, but really nothing to make me want to stay. And people didn't even rp much.

THEN I looked through more of the reviews, and learned that it got votesbecause of incentives. So I did feel a little mislead. I'm not inclined to think the rankings mean much now.

There are some basic problems with ranking muds. I don't know the statistics, but I think most people only regulrly play one mud, often the first mud they ever tried. This is perfectly understandable. You go from being a big shot and knowing everyone and everything on your old mud, to being lost and confused and beaten up by newbiekillers on a new mud; it's hard and most people will just go back to what they know. They are happy there, they like the mud, they vote for it. Then what you have is people voting when they don't really know the competition, and it pretty much boils down to they are voting for the mud where their friends are. So when I'm looking for a mud, do I care where your friends play? Noooo.

I think it would be very useful to have a way to rate your mud in different categories, such as game stability, quality of roleplaying, quality of playerkilling, friendliness of staff, friendliness of players, complexity, interactiveness, exploration, whatever else people look for in games. It would be something you could only do once per isp per mud, perhaps with occassional clearing if the mud went through a major overhaul. All the results for each mud would be compiled and averaged. So then, instead of judging by the rank, or reading through numerous sycophantic reviews, you could just look at the ratings and see oh players of this mud rated it 8.7/10 in pk but 3.5/10 in rp, and then decide if that is what you want. In addition, breaking the ratings into such categories may get people thinking more about what a quality mud is.

01-15-2003, 05:06 PM	#19
Kallekins Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 48	Every so often I like to try out different muds, just to see what else is out there. Several weeks ago, I decided to try one of the "Top Muds." I wanted to know if there really was very much difference in quality. I browsed through the top 20, and picked one that I wouldn't have to pay for. I won't tell which. I actually played it for several days. First, because I wanted to know why a fairly small mud would get so many votes. Then later, because I wanted to know why a fairly lame mud would get so many votes. It was pretty mediocre in quality. Nothing too horrible to make me run away screaming, but really nothing to make me want to stay. And people didn't even rp much. THEN I looked through more of the reviews, and learned that it got votesbecause of incentives. So I did feel a little mislead. I'm not inclined to think the rankings mean much now. There are some basic problems with ranking muds. I don't know the statistics, but I think most people only regulrly play one mud, often the first mud they ever tried. This is perfectly understandable. You go from being a big shot and knowing everyone and everything on your old mud, to being lost and confused and beaten up by newbiekillers on a new mud; it's hard and most people will just go back to what they know. They are happy there, they like the mud, they vote for it. Then what you have is people voting when they don't really know the competition, and it pretty much boils down to they are voting for the mud where their friends are. So when I'm looking for a mud, do I care where your friends play? Noooo. I think it would be very useful to have a way to rate your mud in different categories, such as game stability, quality of roleplaying, quality of playerkilling, friendliness of staff, friendliness of players, complexity, interactiveness, exploration, whatever else people look for in games. It would be something you could only do once per isp per mud, perhaps with occassional clearing if the mud went through a major overhaul. All the results for each mud would be compiled and averaged. So then, instead of judging by the rank, or reading through numerous sycophantic reviews, you could just look at the ratings and see oh players of this mud rated it 8.7/10 in pk but 3.5/10 in rp, and then decide if that is what you want. In addition, breaking the ratings into such categories may get people thinking more about what a quality mud is.