[Molly]

Originally Posted by KaVir By playing multiple characters at the same time. Thus his question about multi-playing.

Multi-playing of course also influences the number of players on line. If half of them are duplicates or triplicates it totally skews the real number.

[Lurker94]

Originally Posted by Molly Multi-playing of course also influences the number of players on line. If half of them are duplicates or triplicates it totally skews the real number.

Right you are, Molly. This thread helped me notice how the Beta Mud Database was missing a Multi-playing option.

[KaVir]

Originally Posted by Molly Multi-playing of course also influences the number of players on line. If half of them are duplicates or triplicates it totally skews the real number.

The same with bots and idlers. It starts getting difficult to accurately calculate numbers the more factors you want to take into account, though. I could have the mud only count unique IP addresses, but that would clump together people who share a connection, while ignoring those who can multiplay from different IP addresses. I could estimate the numbers, but I prefer to have the mud do it automatically if possible, as it's harder for people to argue with.

Having an option for multi-playing would at least let the player know that the number of players may well include duplicates. As with many of the other proposals, I'd also like to see a text-box for clarifying details. For example, a mud might allow you to multiplay, but with a maximum of 2 characters - or multiplaying might be banned, except for transferring equipment to storage characters.

[Muirdach]

I think we may be getting a little technical/complicated. Remember, the average mud player doesn't hang around these (or other) forums and all they want is to find a mud or a pool of muds to try out. One of the irritating things I found when I was searching for new muds (back when I was just a regular player) was that there were too many options and they required prior knowledge. Like the whole "26 - 50 players" category, for example, requires the person to know what a mud with a 26 - 50 playerbase plays like. Or, for PK selections, they would have had to have experience with a mud that has safe zones or whatever the choices are.

Just to propose a radically different idea: how about phrasing it similar to how people ask for mud suggestions when they post in the forum? For example:

How do you feel about the following statements? (1-highly negative to 9-highly positive):

1. A large playerbase is important to me.
2. I prefer as few PK restrictions as possible.
3. I need an environment that encourages and monitors high quality roleplay.

Or whatever the questions are, I just made those up. My point is that mud searches tend to focus very much on numbers, whereas people (especially non-technical people) want "feelings" - basically all they want to know is "is this a mud I will like"? Of course, that would bring up the mud profiles which would show the numbers. So someone who put 8 for the one about mud size, would end up getting the larger muds. Kind of like a search engine that has a percentage score for all muds and lists the highest ones first, rather than the "you're in or you're out, even if you just missed one category" searches that mud sites tend to have.

I agree that it would be a lot harder to do something like that, but I'd argue it would end up being more useful and mean that fewer games would be overlooked.

[Molly]

Originally Posted by Lurker94 Right you are, Molly. This thread helped me notice how the Beta Mud Database was missing a Multi-playing option.

I'm totally confused now. What database are you referring to?
Your own or the one for this site?

[Xerihae]

That would be the one on this site I assume, since the link at the top of the forum says "Mud Database (Beta)".

I think a multi-playing option might also be something to add, as I myself prefer games where it isn't allowed so being able to search for them would be of benefit.

[Milawe]

Originally Posted by Newworlds Hmm, how could you group with yourself. Sounds difficult and odd.

It's very easy to group with your own account if the mud allows multi-playing. This is often found in muds with low populations but are designed for grouping in mind. Not all games are solo-friendly, and some games are solo-friendly only to a point.

Multi-playing has become mainstream in a lot of the bigtime games. You simply buy two accounts, run them on two different computers. Viola! You have an instant group (often to the detriment of anyone else playing with you).

Dark Age of Camelot was notorious for this, and it actually seemed to become a part of their business model. You had another account that you leveled up with your main account, and you would use them to buff your original account. They were commonly known as "buff bots". I had the misfortune of partying with someone who was running 3 accounts at the same time. It was horridly painful.

So, in most cases, it IS difficult to do this, but sometimes, in a very underpopulated game, it's really the only way to survive parts of the game depending on how the game is designed.