The PerfectMUD? Just an opinion

From: Michael Scott (scottm@dns.workcomm.net)
Date: 10/30/96


	Hrm, what is the PerfectMUD?  And if EVERYONE had it, would it be 
perfect anymore?
	While this may be a nice thought, putting together a 'better' starting 
base ... IMHO, Circle (stock as it is) is one of the BEST coding bases, 
that I've seen, and HALF of that is because of its simplicity, and 
standardness.  By adding anything to it, you are going to see 100's of 
muds with those same additions.  And for a mud where people still debate 
over which olc is best, there's NOT that much I would think of adding to 
the base.  In fact, I would almost say that there's too much of a world 
to circle.   That encourages some guy who knows nothing about c or 
running a decent mud, to pick up the code and run AS IS.  I think it 
should come with 1 room. (grin)   What about races and all this 
'standard' stuff that everyone should have when they start out with a 
mud?  Remember the more complicated you make the base, the harder it is 
for people like me to change it (I'm re-doing even the 'taken for 
granted' things like how eq is handled, the D&D base itself, and what 
is a dang stat thing called move, and how does that relate to anything?
I'm tossing em in the trash..)
	I think that the very 'stock'-ness of circle encourages the right 
kinds of behaviors.   It allows good solid coders who want a challenge to 
make something new.  And, if you get in-depth enough into it, most 
well worked, custom crafted circlemud's DO NOT look alike when you get done
with em.   Each can be a work of art on a canvas that just happened to be 
supplied by the circle crew.
	While I agree that patches can be USEFUL things, for additions 
such as olc's, improvements and/or some great insight into the basics of
the mud, I also believe that handing out too much of code like "here's 
how to add x spell into your mud" and "here's the races code" can cause 
the viscious strains of genericism, for which circle is ALSO known for.

                      Michael Scott -- "Living in the Eye of the Hurricane."
		      FLAMES/COMMENTS to scottm@workcomm.net

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