[DonathinFrye]

The second part of Icarus' article is published, speaking towards a no-brainer solution to the standard learning curve problem, that every game in our genre could benefit from. Take a look!

[nyanko]

"Lower Barriers to Entry, part two" is another great article by Optional Realities. Lowering barriers to entry for new players, who have never tried text games before, needs to be a major goal of any MUD. I, for one, never played a text game until I found the Iron Realms games mentioned on Kongregate.com in 2010. Once I tried one, I never went back to graphic games. Text games have so much more depth, variety, and limitless potential to have an impact on the game world. In comparison, a player seems more like a visitor in a graphic game, with little chance of dramatically contributing to that particular world. MUDs have as good a chance as any game to establish a lasting bond with a player. The trick seems to be in learning to ease a new player's transition from point and click with a mouse or console to entering text on a screen.

[DonathinFrye]

I absolutely agree! And I'm glad you're enjoying our weekly articles so far. We have an article that we'll publish in the upcoming weeks that will directly address exactly the issue that you refer to.

In the meantime, this week, we've published Crayon's new article on putting the power of regional expansion into the hands of a game's players. Check it out!

[DonathinFrye]

This week, we've published a new article from Jeshin, discussing the economic systems and design of RPGs/MUDs/MMOs. Check it out!

[DonathinFrye]

This week, we've published an opinion editorial from original Dragon Ball Infinite administrator, Leah, on the considerations and applications of staff ethics. Check it out!

[DonathinFrye]

This week, we've published an article that I wrote on designing and organizing great branching storylines for your games. Check it out!

[DonathinFrye]

This week, we've published an article from Sabrelon describing how to save yourself frustration and reduce your workload, by applying professional customer service techniques to your game's administration. It's a subject that is very relevant for anyone who finds themselves with the tricky responsibility of managing a community of people online!

[DonathinFrye]

This week, we've published an article from Apollo offering guidelines to help you get started and stay organized while trying to turn your dream game into a reality. Check it out!

[DonathinFrye]

This week, we've published an article written by Jeshin on the unenviably tough job of a Community Manager, and how they can best deal with the ... unique challenges presented to them in our niche gaming community. Check it out!

[DonathinFrye]

This week, we've published an article written by Crayon, on how text-based games can learn from Triple A titles like Mass Effect and Borderlands by intelligently blending gameplay genres to tell effective stories and re-invent our favorite gaming niche. Check it out!

[DonathinFrye]

This week's article was written by Imaginary Realities' own Griatch, who is also the mastermind behind the Evennia Engine for creating text-based games, a modern Python resource for our favorite hobby. In the article, he discusses how to get started with understanding Evennia's basic functions, and offers illustrations to help you visualize how Evennia works.

Check it out, and share your thoughts! And if you really dig what Griatch is doing, support him on his

[DonathinFrye]

This week, we've published an article written by Jeshin. He discusses some of the pitfalls of taking a good idea from conception through development, and how to avoid having your best intentions for features and mechanics backfire on you when theory becomes practice. Check it out!

[DonathinFrye]

This week, we've published the second part of Jeshin's series on game development hurdles, discussing how to identify and fix issues with "broken" game play. Read on up!

[DonathinFrye]

This week's article is from Tyr, the creator of BuffyMUD and Haven: Mist and Shadow. In it, he discusses how game designers can anticipate the problems of Out-of-Character interaction and motivations, and counter them with smart, clever design that is unoppressive and organic. Check it out!

[DonathinFrye]

Optional Realities went down about a week ago due to some server side issues. We've used the past week to re-boot our website, our mission statement, and our forums to be more mobile device and screen-reader friendly. Unfortunately, we were not able to transition over our old forums, and are re-building the forums anew.

So, that means that now's a great time to get involved over on the OR community site, or to re-register on the new forums if you haven't already. Come check us out and let us know what you think of the new mission statements, website, and forums!

We'll be spending the Holiday season re-archiving the best of our articles from the past year, and are looking forward to publishing new articles at the start of 2016.