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Old 01-26-2008, 05:13 PM   #1
Tezcatlipoca
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 46
Tezcatlipoca is an unknown quantity at this point
How not to be still-born

Ok, so here's the deal. I've got quite a bit of mudding experience, as well as administration and mud-development experience. I'm a programmer by profession, an artist in heart and enough of a perfectionist to get frustrated with what I don't have.

I've worked at many levels on quite a few muds in the past before I took a hiatus for a few years. After playing/working on other people's muds, I came to a point where I was frustrated with the lack of flexibility in game-play (as a player and administrator), lack of consistency and ease of use in building, and lack of modern designs standards, flexibility and languages in the code-bases I worked on. So, I decided the best way to deal with it was to give my own ideas a shot, as many have done before me.

In the past, on at least two separate occasions, I've attempted to start a MUD project from scratch. The first time was completely from scratch, with two other dedicated programmers. We got a lot done before the project faltered because of diminishing work from the other members, leading to diminished interest, feeding back into less work being done until things ground to a halt. We tried again, looking externally for others to bring things together again. Once again, things faltered. We had no website, no forums, a server that was intermittently breaking, a code-base on the verge of being able to be "played," but not playable enough to interest anyone for more than a brief "ok, that could be interesting. Good luck!" Those we did get on board were very encouraging people, but they were hard won, and were probably brought on too early.

So finally, coming back to it with fresh determination I decided I'd go about it the right way. I've learned a lot, and I won't bother trying to list that information. But instead, here's what I do have:
-Forums ready to go
-A hardware server of my own ready to be configured for server hosting, source hosting, and website hosting.
-A code-base with many many hours of labor put into it that's ready to be expanded upon
-Design and game-world ideas that simply need discussion and detailing before they can be implemented.

That comes down to the initial question, that I pose to those that both have failed, and more importantly those who haven't.

How do I keep from being still born again? I have my own theories of course, but I'd rather not pay attention to those given where it has got me in the past. The most important resource I lack right now is dedicated individuals willing to put some elbow grease into it. One of the biggest problems plaguing the previous attempts were that I found I was the only programmer really doing anything. But finding those people that could and would help is much more difficult than some give credit for. Those still willing to assist either have no skills that are useful, except for testing and telling me what they do or don't like, or no time to devote.

I think many potential mud-start-ups struggle with these problems. No doubt there's no "answer" but every discussion helps I think. So for myself specifically, and others generally, how do people think we should go about solving these problems and becomming more successful?
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