Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post

DonathinFrye · 07-31-2006, 01:10 PM

I agree with most of the things said about Midievia's gameplay. I did enjoy testing out their ship system, but they are hardly not the only MUD that has a system like that. The thing about Midievia is that they know they have to talk themselves up and make themselves look innovative on their website and advertisements to draw people. Many players of Midievia are not familar with other MUDs - that's because Midievia ... a) does advertise outside the MUD community, and b) are a bunch of "newbs".

In all actuality, the newbie quality that I've come to associate mostly with really bad Dragonball/Godwars MUDs and graphical MMORPGs like WoW was suprisingly prevalent.

However, despite the lack of innovation, exciting gameplay, or users that I could stand, Midievia makes their features look amazingly appealing in their advertising and very much so on their website. I am sure that is a big draw for people.

Sometimes, lack of modest leadership can actually become a boon, depending on the kinds of players you wish to draw. It seems to be a staple of MUDs that follow some commercial semi-free/semi-perk-cost format, and those MUDs tend to be the largest ones(with the exception of Simutronics, who had the benefit of being sponsered by AOL early on to create a huge following).

To the gameplay; it is the responsibility of any game designer who is using DIKU to decide whether or not they wish to remain a DIKU MUD, philosophically, or to push themselves to stretch, creatively. I have no problem with DIKU - I am a huge fan of that gift to the community. I do think that too many designers, whether by code snippets, or by philosophy, allow themselves to not see how they can improve their own gameplay in order to create a fresher MUD.

I.E., Clandestine MUD is, at source, DIKU - and even has kept a some qualities of DIKU which are actually desired by most players. However, philosophically, we went the route of trying to create an environment with dozens of unique mini-games and co-operative skills/etc that would force players to think and have fun in PK, professions, and gaming. Yes, automated combat can be a bore. However, this is typically because most combat systems are just designed to take the easy way out.

And I agree that Midievia takes the easy way out - after having designed numerous systems and helped consult with/fix numerous MUDs' combat systems, it is a fact that there are simply many MUDs that are far better.

07-31-2006, 01:10 PM	#15
DonathinFrye Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Name: Donathin Frye Location: Columbus, OH Home MUD: Optional Realities Home MUD: Atonement RPI Home MUD: Project Redshift Posts: 510	I agree with most of the things said about Midievia's gameplay. I did enjoy testing out their ship system, but they are hardly not the only MUD that has a system like that. The thing about Midievia is that they know they have to talk themselves up and make themselves look innovative on their website and advertisements to draw people. Many players of Midievia are not familar with other MUDs - that's because Midievia ... a) does advertise outside the MUD community, and b) are a bunch of "newbs". In all actuality, the newbie quality that I've come to associate mostly with really bad Dragonball/Godwars MUDs and graphical MMORPGs like WoW was suprisingly prevalent. However, despite the lack of innovation, exciting gameplay, or users that I could stand, Midievia makes their features look amazingly appealing in their advertising and very much so on their website. I am sure that is a big draw for people. Sometimes, lack of modest leadership can actually become a boon, depending on the kinds of players you wish to draw. It seems to be a staple of MUDs that follow some commercial semi-free/semi-perk-cost format, and those MUDs tend to be the largest ones(with the exception of Simutronics, who had the benefit of being sponsered by AOL early on to create a huge following). To the gameplay; it is the responsibility of any game designer who is using DIKU to decide whether or not they wish to remain a DIKU MUD, philosophically, or to push themselves to stretch, creatively. I have no problem with DIKU - I am a huge fan of that gift to the community. I do think that too many designers, whether by code snippets, or by philosophy, allow themselves to not see how they can improve their own gameplay in order to create a fresher MUD. I.E., Clandestine MUD is, at source, DIKU - and even has kept a some qualities of DIKU which are actually desired by most players. However, philosophically, we went the route of trying to create an environment with dozens of unique mini-games and co-operative skills/etc that would force players to think and have fun in PK, professions, and gaming. Yes, automated combat can be a bore. However, this is typically because most combat systems are just designed to take the easy way out. And I agree that Midievia takes the easy way out - after having designed numerous systems and helped consult with/fix numerous MUDs' combat systems, it is a fact that there are simply many MUDs that are far better.