[the_logos]

Unfortunately I'm not really sure that's true. Most MUD developers and players never use the forums on TMS or Mudconnector and while that's similar to the commercial MMORPG world in as far as there are no forums or whatnot that everybody's on, there's way more private communication in the MMORPG world from what I've seen. There are a lot of private email lists, for instance, where a lot of the commercial MMO devs talk somewhat freely, and there's way more face-to-face communication as text MUD people don't attend many conferences. At GDC (the biggest game dev conference) for instance, I am usually literally the -only- speaker who is actively running text MUDs. It's disappointing though I understand why too: It's expensive to go to conferences if you're running MUDs as a hobby. I think the text MUD world misses out though, as the text MUD world in general would benefit greatly from more exposure to the wider world of development.

--matt