[DonathinFrye]

It seems pretty simple to me, as a player who has played a ton of different games, owned/staffed for a few successful (and unsuccessful) MUDs from different genres - and generally doesn't care much for game vs game politics.

RPI was a term that was definitely related to Harshlands, ARM and various others from that genre. If you want to tag your MUD as an RPI if it doesn't have permadeath or a core focus on really specific roleplaying (anal retentive roleplaying to some more H+S geared players, I'm sure) ... okay. Go for it. But, you're misleading most people who know what the term RPI has generally been defined as (even if it is unspecific) and confusing newbies who won't understand the difference between a New Worlds and a Shadows of Isildur.

I think of RPI as a code-engine, mostly, with a few games that have created similar styles/systems on their own engines. If I were to try an RPI that wasn't permadeath and had OOC channels (or OOC chatter on regular says/tells), I would be disappointed.

The easiest thing would be to give up the fight and coin your own phrase; I just don't see why there needs to be a fight over the right to use RPI if you exist out of what has been the standard definition. Obviously you have the right, but would it not be better to find a more transparent phrase that would be less likely to confuse expectations for new players?

The RPI Community will never give up the term, willingly, and you cannot really argue that it was not created for that specific genre. Why fight over the word 'Intensive'?

I suggest this website.



That is all.