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Old 09-11-2003, 03:21 AM   #7
erdos
 
Posts: n/a
With all due fairness, Thoric created a very good codebase and it is with great sadness that I occasionally go to the official SMAUG site and see that, just like the last month I checked, it still says "last updated Dec. 29, 2000".  I once played at Realms extensively, and for a time was among the best there as far as non-pkill hack'n'slash went.  Thoric sadly is really basically just a figurehead, last I knew the MUD was run by Blodkai.  Realms had alot of true magic, though perhaps it just seems that way to me because it was my first MUD (back in like 97).  Unfortunately the administration is somewhat of a staggering beaurocracy... they can't be entirely blamed for that, it's part of the price of a huge playerbase.  What I think was one of Realms' main problems was a flaw in its philosophy in code updates... they decided to let the game and codebase basically stagnate for literally years then release all the changes which occurred during those years at once.  So for a good quarter of a decade Realms was the fortress of conservativism, where if you made a simple suggestion like "make bloodstains red instead of green" you would be attacked visciously for your radical visions....  which is not a bad thing.  However, this continued so long that the majority of the playerbase was the type of person who LIKES this sort of conservativism and stagnation.  Then overnight, bang, HUGE "code port".  If they'd done it a bit at a time, I think things would've been alot better.  Compare it to a bunch of fish in a pond which has uniform temperature with absolutely no deviation for years... then suddenly changes temperature drastically.  They all die.

All is temporary... even Rome fell...  dust in the wind, and all that.  I am sad that the Olde Realms, with old clans et al, is gone, but there is no use reminiscing over it.  Just urge new MUDs to learn from the prior generations.

During the later years that I played at RoD it was the people, not the code or areas, which made it stand out. The population model of a MUD is a peculiar thing... a MUD can be top of the line code and totally original, but if it has only 15 players, it likely only ever will have 15 players; a MUD can be a 'has been' as far as new code and areas go, but if it has 300 players, it will be a cold day in #### before they ever go away.
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