[prof1515]

I will also point out that Delerak's RPI may very well have opened, at least for beta testing, before he decided to shut down the project.

The 19 characteristics were the result of a round table of several RPI admins and players (from Harshlands, Shadows of Isildur and Armageddon) who basically sat down, figuritively in an AIM chat room, and examined the original RPIs of which there was consensus as to the application of that term. These three (Armageddon, Harshlands and Forever's End) were examined for the characteristics that they shared in common that were not typical of the average stock MUD. The result was the list of 18 characteristics (a 19th was pointed out a few months later in another discussion) consisting of both code and policy philosophy including the "four most important" listed by Traithe in the above discussion from 2005. This list was then compared to other MUDs past and present. The result was a list of slightly under two dozen (at that time) which met the same conditions. A comparison today reveals a total of 32 in the last fifteen years.

Finally, I'll also point out that the RPMUD Network has three terms for role-play enforced games, along the lines of what Haiwolfe suggested while taking into account Traithe's observation of either being or not being RPI. There is RPI (Role-Play Intensive) for those games meeting the original application of the term, there is RPE (Role-Play Enforced) for games which possess a policy of required/enforced role-play, and there is RPO (Role-Play Oriented) for those games which not only feature a policy of required/enforced role-play but also additional features not conforming to the more specific term of RPI but clearly being different than the standard RPE.

Now, that's a lot of information. Where, I ask, is any evidence for the history or value of the term RPI having any justifiable use besides that which has been so thoroughly outlined above?

Jason