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Assuming all the functional requirements will be met, including quests, intelligent NPCs, legible grammar, and all that...what concepts or rules of thumb can you apply to make the area aesthetically pleasing, not just in the way it is written, but in a reader's mental image of the area?
A lot of concepts that you might use in real-life architecture just don't seem to work well on muds, given that people are reading about the spaces rather than actually seeing them. For instance, repetition in architecture is an extremely useful means of creating a transitional space, but repetition in muds is often just boring.
You can use contrast in text coloring to focus a reader's attention on a word, but it is difficult to translate that focus onto the mental image the word is supposed represent. If anything, it most often detracts, unless you are talking about a subject (such as blood, darkness, or water) that is already heavily associated with a particular color in a typical mudder's mind.
Also, can anyone point out some good reading material on this or related subjects?
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