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Old 01-12-2009, 12:48 PM   #172
prof1515
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Re: In defense of all MUDs. Our genre's noteworthiness is being questioned.

That article really doesn't do much of anything to establish notability. You were the author, right? You mentioned your game in an article about Wikipedia which is anything but an independent, third-person, and objective. It doesn't read like a professional article, it reads like a rant. That's really just another example of the lack of acceptable sources that continues to be the problem in the first place. Topping it off, many of your conclusions are in error in regard to professional publications and source material. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and no encyclopedia, paper or online, is an acceptable research source.

I'm also curious. Exactly how is the significance of MUDs in general threatened by the removal of articles about individual games which are not groundbreaking in the field of online gaming itself (such as the first MUD or those which have crossed over into mainstream and are thus within the wider range of public consciousness)? Or has effort been made to remove any reference to the existance of MUDs? The times I've looked at the Wikipedia article on MUDs, I didn't notice any note about being marked for deletion. Has it been? If so, that should be the community's focus. If not, that's a different story.

If only individual games' articles are threatened, I think it's time the crusade came to an end. Like all crusades, it's not particularly helpful when zealousness takes over and entitlement becomes the issue rather than justice. Even though He-Man might have an article on Wikipedia, I'd wager that ten times more people know what He-Man is or owned a He-Man action figure (I did) than have heard of MUDs collectively, much less individual MUDs. Pop culture has its place in the annals of history. But there's a difference between notability of some subjects of pop culture and elements within those subjects. The subject of MUDs would be notable. Threshold or pretty much any individual MU* would not.

Creating a professional environment should be the focus of the community. Once that's done, then and only then can we hope that notability is possible. Even then, most games won't likely be notable to a degree worth an entire article on them. Simply put, there isn't anything enough significant about them to fill an article on Wikipedia or anywhere else. If an effort is made to try and discredit the notability of the field of MUDs, then there's reason to fight it. But if the effort's being spent on the subject of individual games, all the community is doing is wasting its ammunition in the form of time, effort, and credibility.

Take care,

Jason
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