[silvarilon]

... or a boon to future generations, if we shepherd our hobby so it evolves to incorporate those concepts.

Not that we should simplify our muds into point-and-click games. But we could potentially use that as a way to draw in new markets.

Imagine a facebook app where you can grow your farm - just like the existing ones.
Now imagine if there was a button there that said "Visit your farm" and it logged you into a mud (with a webpage interface still on the facebook page) - and you can look around the farm, see the sheep bleating and the corn waving in the wind. Maybe find extra information (examine the corn and notice insects before your facebook farm would warn you about the locusts, so you can clear them out early...) - from there, it's just a small step to having a path from your farm to the village commons. And from that central area, you've got the opportunity to draw these new players into your roleplay.

Not all will like it, most will just want the brainless clicking. But get enough players trying it out, and you'll have a percentage that will enjoy the muds, and just wouldn't have known about them before. Heck, I stumbled onto muds myself by accident when looking up articles on game design. Most of the students in my postgraduate university games design course had never played a text adventure.

Our largest challenge isn't competing with the other game types. It's just making the players aware that we exist. And I think these silly farming apps and facebook games could be a great opportunity.

Now... anyone know how to code 'em up?