[ArchPrime]

I think that MUD developers need to get out of the mindset that "telnet clients" are what define MUDs. MUDs and their kin do compete against other forms of time-sinks. So, capturing the hearts and minds of the next up-and-coming 20 somethings is going to require an understanding of how THEY do things -- not how WE think they should do things. These folks are a group who like to point at and poke things with their mouse cursors. Typing is practically a secondary experience. The interactive social media/entertainment platforms that are popular today are not popular because the users have to navigate the interface with a series of typed commands. They are popular because users are easily connected to the information they desire, interacting with it through mostly a series of mouse clicks/gestures/etc. Typing certainly comes into play, but at a lesser extent. Please realize that I am referring to how users interact/navigate with the content of their choice --- not how they actually create it. Obviously they must use their keyboards for posting, emailing, twittering, etc. ;-)

Furthermore, graphics and sound are highly useful in assisting the users reach their goals in getting the information they desire - be it an exclamation point over a MOB to indicate a quest, a "DING" sound to let them know they've bumped into a wall, or a highlighted icon to let them know they have mail. People now-a-days expect these things. Counting these sorts of features as impure or not-useful in your game world because they "don't fit the genre" may cause the genre to slowly go the way of the dinosaur.

To me, the bottom line is making an attempt at understanding what the users of today and tomorrow actually do by habit. We need to evolve our MUD clients/interfaces to facilitate these habits. Zero install, browser based games are huge in popularity! I applaud any MUD creator who is actively targeting the browser and the multimedia capabilities offered through the browser platform.

One might draw the parallel between MUDs and books. "Books" are really more a concept -- in the sense that they are written words, placed on paper. Now-a-days, though, its getting mighty popular to interact with those same words on a webpage, an ebook reader, or some other electronic medium. You see, the general concept of reading has not changed -- but the way a person interacts (The interface) with those words certainly is evolving!


Cheers,
A/P