Re[2]: The PerfectMUD? Just an opinion

MAALEXAN@am.pnu.com
Date: 10/31/96


>     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.  

I think Takis's project is a good idea.

While it is true that many muds will then have identical features, these 
features already de facto standard; they just aren't in stock circle.  
Things like aliases that save, for example. There is no reason for saving 
aliases not to be a stock feature.  For what possible purpose would a game 
administrator want non-saving aliases?  Isn't one of the first things 
everybody does is put in the saved alias patch?

This insistance on massive recoding of the mud is partly what makes muds so 
standard.  This encourages good coders to work on their own muds, but 
discourages good game designers from doing so--unless they are also good 
coders.  Consider, what makes Sid Meier's (creator of Civilization-one of my 
favorite computer games) games so excellent isn't his coding skill, but that 
he is a brilliant designer.

In my own case, my game design talents are superior to my rather mediocre 
coding skills.  But to get a mud that I would enjoy playing I have to put in 
scan, saved aliases, abbreviations, saved eq pos, etc.  (Thank heavens for 
patches)  If all these were in stock circle it would be even better.  So 
far, I have done exactly one design thing, creating a consequence for 
failing a pick lock roll (i.e. a trap).

It seems to me that Perfectmud is intended for use as a game design 
platform, rather than a coding platform.
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Ensure that you have read the CircleMUD Mailing List FAQ: |
|   http://cspo.queensu.ca/~fletcher/Circle/list_faq.html   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 12/18/00 PST