Thread: Help files?
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Old 10-14-2003, 08:52 PM   #4
Vassago
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Austin, TX
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The method of accessing the helpfiles is important as well. The search engine should be permissible enough to allow for mispellings and typos - within the game, we use a soundex-based search for that. Helpfiles should also suggest alternate entries based on their content, as a way of leading someone through a chain of related entries.

In addition to the helpfiles, we also offer a (put together by one of our players, in fact) that contains the most commonly-used commands, skills, and references, both in a PDF format and in spiral-bound physical-copy format through our web store.

There's also a continually-updated that also references individual annotated help files, as well as explaining them in context for a novice's specific needs.

I think websites have become very important to MUDs as well, which is why we have focused a great deal of attention on putting together an with access to a great deal of information that a player would want, novice or not.  It's not just helpfiles that are informative, but player-written guides around specific sections of the game, specific classes, specific species, equipment groups, that sort of thing.

Community is important, as well. There is the opportunity to ask other players for help in our . Additionally they provide a great resource of historical commentary from players on various aspects of the game.

And of course, the themselves are able to be annotated by our players to provide additional information that we may have forgotten to include or just didn't think to add. We review these annotations fairly frequently (probably not as often as we should, but we try) and may incorporate the information contained within them into the helpfile itself.

There is a danger of overwhelming the novice player with too much information at once, which is why we have a - the first section, in fact - on the website that focuses on novice adventurers. This way the novice is given a good launching point for the game's various information systems.

No system is perfect, however, and maintaining such a large website resource takes a great deal of attention, so it's definitely a labor of love.
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