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Molly · 08-30-2003, 06:45 PM

Hephos:
If decent Builders grow on trees, where do those trees grow? And how come so many muds are screaming for Builders and/or have such crappy zones?

Anyone, who believes that being a good Builder is mainly a question of learning OLC, is just showing their total ignorance about what quality building entails. Sure, any twelve-year-old kid can learn to use OLC within a few days, and even whip out a crappy zone, provided they got the patience for it. Does that make them a quality – or even a ‘decent’ - Builder? Not any more than knowing how to work with a word-processor makes anyone a good author.

Building is an art form of its own, which more resembles writing the synopsis for a film than a novel. Because, even without graphics, a zone is dynamic and interactive and springs to full life first when it gets played, something that has to be considered when building. Creating a quality zone entails both research and creativity, thinking out and putting into words the background story, plots, environment, population, and all other aspects of your world, all of which must be logical and consistent, within the laws of nature and society of the Mud you work on. A Quality zone is usually entertaining, and has flavour, atmosphere, suspense, surprises, sometimes humour. Other aspects that need to be considered are challenge versus playability, game balance, scripts, quests, puzzles, how to utilise all the options the code offers – and how to invent new engines if the existing game mechanics aren’t up to your ideas. Good zones are often the result of close cooperation between Builders and Coders, even if an amazing amount of things can be done with scripts.

Talking about OLC in connection with the subject of quality zones is next-to an insult.

The_logos 1:
Are your ‘happy’ Builders aware of how low you value their work and their ideas on public discussion boards?

The_logos 2:
I think this statement speaks for itself. With an attitude like that, no wonder disgruntled staff members are ‘inevitable’ in your operation. It never once entered your mind that the fault might lie with the Mud Owner and not with the staff member, right?

Possibly the main problem with arrogant people like you is, that you never even encountered a quality Builder. Probably because no quality Builder would even consider working on a Mud run by arrogant people like you. And if they did, they would probably turn into disgruntled staff members pretty soon, and you’d ‘kick their asses out the door, ban their ips, and that's the end of it.’

08-30-2003, 06:45 PM	#35
Molly Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Sweden Home MUD: 4 Dimensions Posts: 574	Hephos: If decent Builders grow on trees, where do those trees grow? And how come so many muds are screaming for Builders and/or have such crappy zones? Anyone, who believes that being a good Builder is mainly a question of learning OLC, is just showing their total ignorance about what quality building entails. Sure, any twelve-year-old kid can learn to use OLC within a few days, and even whip out a crappy zone, provided they got the patience for it. Does that make them a quality – or even a ‘decent’ - Builder? Not any more than knowing how to work with a word-processor makes anyone a good author. Building is an art form of its own, which more resembles writing the synopsis for a film than a novel. Because, even without graphics, a zone is dynamic and interactive and springs to full life first when it gets played, something that has to be considered when building. Creating a quality zone entails both research and creativity, thinking out and putting into words the background story, plots, environment, population, and all other aspects of your world, all of which must be logical and consistent, within the laws of nature and society of the Mud you work on. A Quality zone is usually entertaining, and has flavour, atmosphere, suspense, surprises, sometimes humour. Other aspects that need to be considered are challenge versus playability, game balance, scripts, quests, puzzles, how to utilise all the options the code offers – and how to invent new engines if the existing game mechanics aren’t up to your ideas. Good zones are often the result of close cooperation between Builders and Coders, even if an amazing amount of things can be done with scripts. Talking about OLC in connection with the subject of quality zones is next-to an insult. The_logos 1: Are your ‘happy’ Builders aware of how low you value their work and their ideas on public discussion boards? The_logos 2: I think this statement speaks for itself. With an attitude like that, no wonder disgruntled staff members are ‘inevitable’ in your operation. It never once entered your mind that the fault might lie with the Mud Owner and not with the staff member, right? Possibly the main problem with arrogant people like you is, that you never even encountered a quality Builder. Probably because no quality Builder would even consider working on a Mud run by arrogant people like you. And if they did, they would probably turn into disgruntled staff members pretty soon, and you’d ‘kick their asses out the door, ban their ips, and that's the end of it.’