[prof1515]

I have tried for years to determine from where or whom the term RPI was created. I have not been able to single out a particular name or even a particular MUD. It was definitely not a deliberate "club of three" MUDs or individuals or anything that said, "We/This is an RPI." The term began to fall into use to describe three different MUDs, all of which possessed similar characteristics but I've not seen any evidence that it was the result of any cooperative decision.

I'll get to this in a moment as well as why I have thus far, so much as this recent discussion is concerned, said.

I'm not assuming that it's my preferences that we're discussing. I'm simply trying to provide some guidance on how a framework can be created to define RPI and mentioning some attempts to do so which have already been made. And as I pointed out above, the identity of the person or persons who coined the phrase is not clear and hence their preferences are equally unknown.

No, it didn't form a club. This wasn't some arbitrary choice of "these three games" on my part. I was merely pointing out the three games to which the term was first applied and thus to which characteristics of an RPI would therefore be found. Ascertaining from where relevant data would be found is not forming a "club".

I've been researching the origins of RPI for at least five years now and despite my efforts, I have been unable to verify who exactly coined the term. One thing I have been able to verify however is that the term was used to describe three particular MUDs of the mid-to-late 90s which possessed many of the same characteristics: Armageddon, Harshlands, and Forever's End (the last being derived from the code of the second).

Actually, he's not. Numerous attempts, including at least two by me, have been made to spell out those similarities. Each has been met with charges of "elitism" and lots of other vitriol, some from staff/players of games which wouldn't quite meet the definition and others by players/staff of games which were vastly different and had no interest in RPIs anyway. Every time it's been the same. So, rather than spell it out, if people ask, I tell them to do the research themselves. The facts are there and if they're really interested, they can look for themselves first before accusing me of "elitism" and "making up" stuff based on "personal preferences".

But if you must know, much of what is being listed in Delerak's thread is spot on. I may chime in at some point with some points but for now I'm just watching because personally I'm sick of being accused of this or that.

Take care,

Jason