Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post

OnyxFlame · 06-02-2003, 10:58 AM

I'm not saying that people should be forced to wrack their brains trying to find something negative about a mud for purposes of reviewing it. However, if they're aware of negative aspects, I think they should at least mention them in passing so a potential player knows what to expect if they decide to play it. Although personally I don't see how anyone can think any mud has no negative aspects, unless they're some 1337 d00d who has no clue anyway.

And I think the main reason there are no professional mud reviewers is that generally it's hard to be objective if you're trying out a mud that's totally out of the category of what you usually like. Mudders tend to be either rabid supporters of RPI's, or H&S's, or unrestricted PK muds, or DIKU's, or whatever, and totally hate anything that doesn't have whatever feature they're most fond of. So for instance if I tried to review some H&S mud, I really wouldn't do it justice because of my low opinion of the whole entire category.

And this is totally apart from how long it can take to learn the ins and outs of some muds. Not to mention that some people just aren't interested in every aspect even of a single mud. For instance I've played one mud for over 3 years and still don't know details about half the quests, because I have very little interest in doing them. And with RPI's especially, your experience of the game largely depends on which political faction(s) you have experience with, or whether you've had experience with organized groups at all. Someone who's played a char in a group on the losing side of a war, or in a group with very few members and thus less RP interaction, will have a very different outlook on the game from someone who's been on the winning side of a war, or played in a group of healers, or refused to join any organizations at all. And considering how long it takes for some political organizations to trust an outsider enough to let them join, if you decided you wanted to see the mud from several angles before expressing your opinions of it, you could be waiting a VERY long time. (After 3 YEARS I still have no idea what it's like to be a member of half the factions of the mud I play, heh.)

06-02-2003, 10:58 AM	#18
OnyxFlame Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 153	I'm not saying that people should be forced to wrack their brains trying to find something negative about a mud for purposes of reviewing it. However, if they're aware of negative aspects, I think they should at least mention them in passing so a potential player knows what to expect if they decide to play it. Although personally I don't see how anyone can think any mud has no negative aspects, unless they're some 1337 d00d who has no clue anyway. And I think the main reason there are no professional mud reviewers is that generally it's hard to be objective if you're trying out a mud that's totally out of the category of what you usually like. Mudders tend to be either rabid supporters of RPI's, or H&S's, or unrestricted PK muds, or DIKU's, or whatever, and totally hate anything that doesn't have whatever feature they're most fond of. So for instance if I tried to review some H&S mud, I really wouldn't do it justice because of my low opinion of the whole entire category. And this is totally apart from how long it can take to learn the ins and outs of some muds. Not to mention that some people just aren't interested in every aspect even of a single mud. For instance I've played one mud for over 3 years and still don't know details about half the quests, because I have very little interest in doing them. And with RPI's especially, your experience of the game largely depends on which political faction(s) you have experience with, or whether you've had experience with organized groups at all. Someone who's played a char in a group on the losing side of a war, or in a group with very few members and thus less RP interaction, will have a very different outlook on the game from someone who's been on the winning side of a war, or played in a group of healers, or refused to join any organizations at all. And considering how long it takes for some political organizations to trust an outsider enough to let them join, if you decided you wanted to see the mud from several angles before expressing your opinions of it, you could be waiting a VERY long time. (After 3 YEARS I still have no idea what it's like to be a member of half the factions of the mud I play, heh.)