[plamzi]

I think this excerpt belongs to another thread: "What can we do to prevent today's youth from polluting our RPI games." I'm sure it will actually contain posts from people interested in the subject since the majority of the people in this thread seem far more excited about ways to keep people out than in. If the above thread title is too long, another suggestion: "Do MUDs need to be 'taken back to the 15th Century'".

I have no idea why you think I'm obsessed with teenagers, but it could have something to do with the fact that you haven't gotten my name right after more than 2 years, so you can't possibly be reading carefully. As I've already explained, I'm using teenagers as a proxy for "a tough 21st century customer" who is also the customer most likely to bring other customers. If that's not someone you want to target, fine, target someone else. But don't use teenagers as the straw man to advocate targeting nobody except the people who would already play your game as it is today.

Again, if you are fine with what you have, great. But then, why even read this thread, let alone post to it? This should be a place where people share ideas about doing stuff. I think we've all heard enough about what you (and several others) think is the "wrong way" to modernize MUDs. What do you think is the *right* way?

I haven't claimed that. But it is definitely *one of the ways* to try and keep your industry alive. It is infinitely better than doing nothing, or doing nothing differently and expecting different results.

On the other hand, we have your claim that teenagers are actually *bad* for your game. That may be generally true for an RPI game, but they are a net gain for the community as a whole. Please refer them to me the same way I refer people looking for RPI to you.

And did they do that by refusing to provide graphics because otherwise their games may not be true MUDs or immersive enough to the 0.01% who are graphics-averse? Or did they do so by providing a *complete and easily accessible experience* that appeals to the biggest percentage of their target audience?

I take one look at their offerings, and they cannot be more visual or more different from what we're doing here. Heck, it would be a huge plus for us if we even had a MUD game portal of this quality that we can jointly promote, even if we show just screenshots of telnet sessions for our games. So what is your point here? That there are other target audiences than teenagers? Yes, agreed, there are. And most of us are doing nothing substantial to appeal to those, either.