Top Mud Sites Forum Return to TopMudSites.com
Go Back   Top Mud Sites Forum > Mud Development and Administration > Advanced MUD Concepts
Click here to Register

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 05-01-2008, 01:32 PM   #21
Newworlds
Legend
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Name: NewWorlds
Home MUD: New Worlds
Posts: 1,425
Newworlds will become famous soon enoughNewworlds will become famous soon enough
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

Um. No and no. If you are going to "weigh" in as someone with authority, at least get the facts straight. RPI came about in 2004 with RPIMUD.com, not "years ago" like last decade. Roleplaying enforced MUDS and intensive roleplaying muds were around since the early 90's not AFTER WoW or Ultima Online. They were before these graphical powerhouses.

Finally, if you are going to "point out" these muds, point them out, do not make a global statement.

Thanks.

I'm still waiting for someone who is actually the owner of one of the original 3 MUDS from the creation of RPIMUD to step forward and clear up the mess in the mud.
Newworlds is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-01-2008, 01:39 PM   #22
Delerak
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Name: Dan
Location: New York
Posts: 716
Delerak is on a distinguished road
Send a message via ICQ to Delerak Send a message via AIM to Delerak Send a message via MSN to Delerak Send a message via Yahoo to Delerak
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

You should probably stop posting. No offense.
Delerak is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-01-2008, 01:47 PM   #23
Bakha
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 46
Bakha is on a distinguished road
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

Really? A search of usenet says otherwise:
Here's a from 1998 which is... a decade ago.

I didn't say there weren't RPE or such before MMORPGs. I said that it became an increasingly attractive aspect of mudding that many, many muds started trying to emphasize as a way of attracting players. I mean, do you not remember the tons and tons and tons of arguments on TMC and TMS about what it means to have RP-encourage or RP-enforced? It was a result of muds that previously weren't concerned with RP trying to cash in on players from the RP niche.

Fair enough.
Bakha is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-01-2008, 01:53 PM   #24
Newworlds
Legend
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Name: NewWorlds
Home MUD: New Worlds
Posts: 1,425
Newworlds will become famous soon enoughNewworlds will become famous soon enough
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

I was off on RPIMUD, it began in 2005, not 2004.

Somewhat true in a global sense I will grant you that, and even more true today as Roleplay is basically defunct in MMORPG's.
Newworlds is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-01-2008, 03:30 PM   #25
Bakha
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 46
Bakha is on a distinguished road
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

I'm not sure that really matters, as the term was in broad use at least as far back as 1998, as evidenced by the linked usenet post. If you'll look at the context of some of the RPI posts from back then, it's pretty obvious that the term was in common use elsewhere prior to that, and that it was applied specifically to Arm, FEM, HL, and 4Lands. I imagine if you could search the ISCA BBS posts from their mudding forums, which is where most of the RPI community (I told you we were insular back then) hung out and communicated, you'd find frequent use of the term. Of course, the ISCA deal does also serve to show that the term might not have been used broadly in the mudding community at large to reference that particular set of games. Anyway, I digress.
Bakha is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-01-2008, 03:52 PM   #26
Jherlen
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 47
Jherlen is on a distinguished road
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

I'm certain that as early as 2002 at least, RPI was a term being used, because I was developing a game that aspired to be one. RPImud.com came about to group together MUDs that had been using the term RPI for years prior.
Jherlen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-01-2008, 06:45 PM   #27
prof1515
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Illinois
Posts: 791
prof1515 will become famous soon enoughprof1515 will become famous soon enough
Send a message via AIM to prof1515 Send a message via Yahoo to prof1515
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

I first started playing an RPI in 1999 (prior to that I had only played H&S). In 1999 the term RPI was firmly established to refer to a small group of MUDs sharing a set of features despite different codebase origins (with the exception of FEM which was derived from HL). The RPIMUD Network (rpimud.com) was created in 2005 by the creator of FEM, long after the term had been first used and bastardized as well.

The RPIMUD Network was somewhat hastily thrown together and seemingly without knowledge of the abuse of the term that had developed. Wade's definition of "RPI" was so vague that it literally didn't require anything more than the presence of role-play to qualify. By that definition, TMS could qualify as RPI under such vague terms so long as a couple of us role-played via a thread. Almost immediately, a variety of games appeared on the list that ranged from traditional RPIs to "role-play accepted" H&S MUDs. Within no time, the majority of games on the site was comprised of non-RPI MUDs. That process has lately reversed itself with a slew of new RPIs under development and the ratio of RPIs to non-RPIs is around 3:2 (as some are still under development it's not easy to ascertain their features).

In late 2005 and early 2006, in response to this problem, I began using a new term to describe those games which made a genuine effort of code overhaul that separated them from being simply "role-play enforced" H&S-code MUDs. The term I used was Role-Play Oriented, or RPO. Wade liked the term and adopted it for his own use (though not in the original context of meaning I had given it) when redesigning the site. He left before completing the site overhaul but the page bearing his use of RPO can be found .

The RPIMUD Network is now run by a committee of three (interviewing for a fourth) of which I am a member. We've thus far agreed that it would be unfair to just boot affiliates who have been with the site for years and thus we're looking to expand the qualifications to be listed on the site to include all role-play enforced text-based games (not just MUDs but MUSHes as well). We're trying to establish some working definitions, hence the purpose of this thread, in order to differentiate the MUDs on the site for the purpose of equal representation in the committee. By coming up with working definitions of RPI, RPO, etc. we can then expand the committee without the fear of one group, be it RPIs or any other, being unequally represented on the Operating Committee (as the management of the site is called).

Now, can we please get back to the question at hand seeing as it's only the first of several the committee would like to have input on? In other words, can anyone add any other distinctive features common to the original RPIs, be it code or policy? What other distinct philosophies or code features were found on Armageddon, Harshlands, and the other original RPIs? Were these features base features found in the original unmodified codebase? If so, how were they modified to make them distinct from other games using that codebase?

Thank you, and take care.

Jason
prof1515 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-01-2008, 07:00 PM   #28
prof1515
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Illinois
Posts: 791
prof1515 will become famous soon enoughprof1515 will become famous soon enough
Send a message via AIM to prof1515 Send a message via Yahoo to prof1515
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

Here's a possible 20th feature similarity between the original RPIs: code-implemented delays in movement execution. I'm still checking to verify, but didn't all of the original RPIs utilize a coded delay when moving from room to room? I know that between Armageddon and Harshlands this feature similarity exists but that they execute it differently. On one, the delay is assessed before the PC moves to the next room while on the other the transfer to the next room occurs first and the delay afterward. Regardless, the intent and effect is the same by removing the rapid fire movement from room to room that can occur in the base codes from which these games were derived.
prof1515 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-01-2008, 07:01 PM   #29
Newworlds
Legend
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Name: NewWorlds
Home MUD: New Worlds
Posts: 1,425
Newworlds will become famous soon enoughNewworlds will become famous soon enough
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

Sheesh, why did you hide that fact for so long. I assumed as much as you were so gung ho about the term RPI.
Newworlds is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-01-2008, 07:26 PM   #30
Xerihae
Senior Member
 
Xerihae's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Name: Chris
Location: Wolverhampton, UK
Posts: 358
Xerihae will become famous soon enough
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

I'm relatively certain all ROM MUDs also have this. My reasoning? If you spam in a bunch of commands and hit enter, you still move at a (relatively) sedate place. If you place the same commands in a mobprog and have the mob execute it, it's done lightning-fast because the mob has no movement/speed restrictions placed on it. I would imagine it was put in to stop people with expansive macro/alias sets from running rings around people who just type. I'm sure someone with more familiarity with the ROM coding could point out the relevant section of code, but I can't be bothered to go find it because I am lazy
Xerihae is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-01-2008, 08:26 PM   #31
prof1515
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Illinois
Posts: 791
prof1515 will become famous soon enoughprof1515 will become famous soon enough
Send a message via AIM to prof1515 Send a message via Yahoo to prof1515
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

Interesting. I'm not very familiar with ROM so I'll have to do some inquiries with folks who are. I'm not completely certain but I think the movement command delays on the RPIs extend to NPCs as well which might therefore help define the implementation of this change. RPIs like HL were Diku-derivitives and thus the change was a custom one and might have been across the boards with PCs and NPCs alike. Thanks for the heads-up on ROM though. Like I said, more research on this needs to be done which is why I'm hesitant to put it on the list.

Take care,

Jason

Last edited by prof1515 : 05-01-2008 at 08:58 PM.
prof1515 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2008, 06:26 AM   #32
shasarak
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Emily's Shop
Posts: 60
shasarak is on a distinguished road
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

A question: why would anyone imagine that the origin of the term "RPI" is even faintly relevant to anything? Words change their meaning over time, and once they have changed it's pointless to carry on trying to use them in their original sense; that simply obscures your meaning rather than clarifying it. Language is dynamic.
shasarak is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2008, 08:12 AM   #33
incognito9
New Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 27
incognito9 is on a distinguished road
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

That's really interesting...

Now, for the sake of argument, how did you try to be one? Did you work on a really good backstory and try to encourage the right players to come by, or did you just try to implement a specific set of features?
incognito9 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2008, 08:22 AM   #34
prof1515
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Illinois
Posts: 791
prof1515 will become famous soon enoughprof1515 will become famous soon enough
Send a message via AIM to prof1515 Send a message via Yahoo to prof1515
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

Because when the term was invented it referred to a very small group of MUDs. While no one set out a clear definition of exactly what constituted RPI, it served a purpose by assisting those who coined and used it to reference the specific type of MUD design and philosophy they were referring to and seeking. As used today, it serves little to no purpose because there's no standard definition and is used to describe pretty much the same thing as several other terms.

Think of the term "monkey". People use it to describe a lot of creatures including gorillas, chimpanzees, and the other apes as well as some types of prosimians. But apes and prosimians are not monkeys. Many people can't tell the difference and use the word in such a generic sense but to someone who knows the difference, it's quite clear. The term "monkey" has a definite meaning and refer to specific types of primates, even if the general public couldn't tell a bonobo from a baboon. The same is true of the term RPI. Six or seven years ago if you said you were looking for a RPI, the people using the term knew what you were talking about even if there wasn't a concise definition of the characteristics written down.

The same set of characteristics is still referred to as RPI. The only difference is that a lot of people started using the term but without any clear understanding of it, many based on a linguistic misunderstanding and in a manner to refer to subjective characteristics that can't be quantified ("intense role-play" means different things to different people after all). But just as a lot of people call a gorilla a monkey, it's not nor does their misuse of the term mean that the term RPI means any MUD any more than monkey is an acceptable word to describe a gorilla. Yes, "monkey" has other definitions but they refer to completely different uses such as addiction ("monkey on your back") or to a foolish person ("those monkeys at the tavern") but those are completely different uses, not misuses.

The problem facing use of the term RPI to describe anything but those games to which it originally referred is that there's no standard definition. The games to which it was first applied shared certain characteristics, characteristics which have been present now in over two dozens different games over a period of more than a decade and a half. No such set of characteristics is present in the other games as the term has been used by everything from role-play enforced games to role-play accepted H&S games. Look at Armageddon and you see those 19 characteristics mentioned at the beginning of this thread. Look at Harshlands and you see the same 19 of 19. Look at Shadows of Isildur and you see 19 of 19 as well. Look at any of the other two dozen or so games that are clearly identified as RPI and all 19 are present there too. A clear definition can be formed as to what kind of game the term is referring to. Now look at some of the games over which use of the term is contested and you see 15 of 19, 13 of 19, or 6 of 19 and in some cases the 6 on one game are not included in the 13 on another. There's no consistency.

Thus there really isn't another definition for the word, merely a lack of understanding of the existing definition. Therefore, has the definition really changed or does it just mean people don't know the definition and simply use it improperly. The purpose of this thread is to aid in clarifying what was meant and dispelling linguistic misinterpretations (such as the grammatically incorrect reading of the term as "intense role-play") which have clouded the context of the original definition. Just as the term monkey doesn't mean gorillas and chimpazees regardless of its misuse by some in reference to these creatures, so too does RPI not mean other MUDs just because of misunderstanding. The definition hasn't really changed, it's just misused since there doesn't seem to be any real definition to replace it. It's just, to quote more than one person in earlier discussions, "what people want it to mean". That's not a definition though.

There seems to be some question as to "what difference does it make" if the term is used in such a general sense. For those seeking the type of games that the term originally applied, it serves the important purpose of distinguishing such games from the hundreds of other MUDs out there, just as it did when the term was coined. But what of the opposite? What difference does it make if the term is only used in its original context? Role-play MUD is a term that equally serves the purpose that such a general use does without an original meaning that can lend an alternative earlier definition. If some feel that all that is required to be RPI is the presence of role-play and not even an enforced role-play policy, is that not simply a role-play MUD? RPI has a specific meaning which has existed as long as the term itself. Other uses lack any clear similarity of characteristics beyond that which is already denoted by the term role-play MUD (or if one need be more specific, role-play encouraged or role-play enforced MUD).

Take care,

Jason

Last edited by prof1515 : 05-02-2008 at 08:27 AM.
prof1515 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2008, 10:00 AM   #35
Zhiroc
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 92
Zhiroc is on a distinguished road
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

After seeing this go 'round and 'round, I think it can be boiled down to this: the RPI folks are trying to create a "brand" or "trademark" well after the creation of their "product". However, the term they used originally has been co-opted by the community at large. Furthermore, the term RPI, unlike "monkey", is formed of 3 words that have generic meaning, and even the order is nothing special as other terms like "RP enforced" and "RP accepted" is the common way to describe a MUD.

Why are brand names nowadays usually some sort of "made-up" word? Because of this very reason, I think. You can't get people to consider a branding unique if they already have an understanding, right or wrong" about the words you choose, unless you are very, very successful and ubiquitous.

So the way I see it? Don't beat your heads against the wall. Make a new term and trademark it. Or maybe, drop the notion that the "I" means "intensive". Create an graphical trademark around the letters RPI and say that it just means "RPI". Or if you want, pick a new word, like "Initiative".

I imagine there are legal ways to protect your brand, and ways to license games to use it, but I don't know the specifics.
Zhiroc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2008, 10:41 AM   #36
Spoke
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 101
Spoke is on a distinguished road
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

To further shasarak's point that language is dynamic, how many of you would feel offended if told:

"You look very gay, like a fag-smoking guy on his element"?

Well, maybe in England, 50 years ago, this would have been received in a much different light than today's US.

Last edited by Spoke : 05-02-2008 at 10:42 AM. Reason: Got the poster's name wrong
Spoke is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2008, 10:58 AM   #37
Bakha
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 46
Bakha is on a distinguished road
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

Good post. This is pretty much my suggestion as well. Just drop the meaning for the acronym altogether.

My question, I guess is: what is the motivation of mud owners to label their games RPI now? How is it different from role-play enforced? I guess that part of it is the trendiness of the term RPI.

Why, though, is RPI a trendy term? Because of a buzz that was created around the term... by the original RPI muds.

Predictably, the "buzz" around RPI will die out as the term becomes basically another meaningless term like roleplay enforced or roleplay mandatory. No one is really at fault, it's just the way things happen. I think this dynamic repeats itself in real life all the time. For example, when a small, trendy hip town like Austin, Boulder, or Portland becomes "discovered." Suddenly, everyone wants to move there and enjoy the coolness of that thing. When all of the outsiders move in, there is a backlash from the "locals" because they perceive the interlopers as destroyers of the very thing which makes the locations special. The people moving in, meanwhile, appreciate and love the very things that the town represents, and they don't understand why they're being accused of trying to change things or destroy the good things in the town.

The same dynamic repeats itself in life all the time, with bands, bars, sports, etc... It would probably be an interesting subject for a Freakonomics style book.

Last edited by Bakha : 05-02-2008 at 11:10 AM.
Bakha is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2008, 11:20 AM   #38
Milawe
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: USA
Home MUD: Threshold RPG
Home MUD: Stash
Home MUD: Archons of Avenshar
Posts: 653
Milawe has a spectacular aura aboutMilawe has a spectacular aura about
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

Problem is that it's a made-up list of features co-opted by several muds. You can't really license it or trademark it because it's not actually a product. It's kind of like how "cola" is a kind of drink that is sweet and has carbonation except that people try to enforce how "cola" is used rather than cola evolving to mean what it means now. (Well, and cola doesn't really stand for some real words that could be taken to mean something else.) There's pretty much nothing you can legally do with it unless all the muds with that feature set want to come under one business that holds the trademark. It wouldn't be worth the money to do that anyway since only a few people are probably this adamant that this specific feature set is the only type of game they'll ever play. Trademarking isn't cheap!
Milawe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2008, 11:55 AM   #39
Milawe
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: USA
Home MUD: Threshold RPG
Home MUD: Stash
Home MUD: Archons of Avenshar
Posts: 653
Milawe has a spectacular aura aboutMilawe has a spectacular aura about
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

I still think they should just go with AFS. Drop the Armageddon and just have it be "A Feature Set". As far as I know, no other mud groups really try to categorize themselves so specifically with a list of preferred features, so making it as simple as "A Feature Set" would be clear enough. It'd be at least as clear as "RPI". RPFS? Roleplay feature set? That's probably more clear than all of them.

Yeah, I think I heard about it a few years back with some disgruntled Threshold player made some post about playing a roleplay intensive mud where the roleplay was really intense. Thus, my first impression of the term RPI was always that it stood for "roleplay intense." I didn't really pay attention to it then.

Then it cropped up some in the past three years on TMS when I was reading the site on and off. Again, I actually didn't really pay attention except to think it was not really that different from the terms MUD, MUSH, roleplay enforced, roleplay encouraged, roleplay accepted, etc. It wasn't until this thread happened that I something seemed a bit off to me:



So there was a buzz, but the buzz wasn't really loud and clear for people who weren't really involved in that specific community or for people who didn't keep with every trend that happens in the mudding world. I know now that that the players of this particular feature set want a distinction from other roleplay enforced muds, but I still maintain that it's not quite as clear as its made out to be. Half of the muds listed on RPImud.com don't fit what is posted here as the features required to actually be a part of the group. The standard, before now, just seemed to be "We think this mud's roleplaying is intense, and their code promotes it." Perhaps the people who have spent 300 hours of research on the subject of RPI know better, but most of the world (even the mudding world) probably don't care enough to spend even 1/100th of that time looking into it.

I had kind of thought that it had already gone "generic" since the term's kind of just slung around by tons of the newer muds. I figured they were just trying to say, "Hey, we've got RP here!" and players would be expected to research the individual mud's features themselves.

I have to say that I find it a bit silly that a certain players expect to basically have things dumbed down to three letters for them, and then they are horribly offended when the features on the mud don't meet their expectations. That's just me, though. Most people don't know what the three letters stand for except for the generic terms they represent. They have no idea that it involves things like permadeath or a class-less, skill-based system or whatever else gets tacked onto the feature set. They didn't do it to offend the players of such games. They probably just thought, like I did, that it stood for roleplay intensive, and they probably had such lofty goals as to making the roleplay "intense" on their mud. For a while MURPE was extremely popular for roleplaying games, and a ton of people started tacking that on to their muds. Then people got bored of it and moved on with other acronyms and fancy-pants names for their muds. Seriously, though, most mud admins barely pay attention to what's posted on any of these mudding sites. I know that I didn't for a long time.

You always had a wonderful way with words. This seems like an apt analogy.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter if the term remains as it is, or it changes. People can't just be expected to know that roleplay intensive means something other than the "roleplay is intense". Crying about it and railing at the injustices of the world won't really change that. We could post our little hearts out, but most players and a whole lot of admins don't really give a crap what we post on these sites.

Last edited by Milawe : 05-02-2008 at 12:01 PM. Reason: silly typos
Milawe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-02-2008, 12:05 PM   #40
shasarak
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Emily's Shop
Posts: 60
shasarak is on a distinguished road
Re: Determining the Origin and Meaning of RPI

Or, in victorian writing, you might encounter a sentence describing a man running around "ejaculating furiously". That roughly translates to "exclaiming furiously" or "shouting furiously" in more modern English. Of course you're perfectly at liberty to use this sort of victorian terminology if you wish, but you can't expect most users of modern English to understand what you mean if you do.
shasarak is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:34 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Style based on a design by Essilor
Copyright Top Mud Sites.com 2022