Category: Imaginary Realities

Summary of “An Introduction to MUSHes” by Ervin Hearn III

Ervin Hearn III was in charge of theme and code for KorongilMUSH.

“MUSH stands for Multi-User Shared Hallucination, and is derived from the mud family of online games. They are text based programs which allow multiple people to simultaneously interact within an artificial environment.”

MUSHes often recreate worlds from movies, books, and other sources for a background. Others, are creative creations of the wizards (admins) in charge of the MUSH.

MUSHes often have 20-100 people roleplaying at the same time. Players roleplay by acting just like the character they are playing would act. Out Of Character (OOC) information is kept out of the behavior of the character. Usually, there are special chats or channels for OOC communication. Everything in the main MUSH should be In Character (IC). Players and characters should be kept separate.

When describing what your character is doing, include lots of detail, like you’d find in a novel. However, “Never pose the actions of another character. Do not include a character’s reaction to the actions your character performs. Doing so will lead to arguments and on most role play oriented MUSHes disciplinary action.”

After roleplaying and poses, building is the next most important skill in MUSHes. Some MUSHes allow all players to build rooms, exits, and objects, while others limit building powers to certain roles such as Building Powers.

Some players may be given access to MUSHcode, which is similar in power to the C/C++ code the MUSH is written in. “Normal players may also take advantage of MUSHcode and create personal commands that make various tasks on the MUSH easier for them. Those interested in learning more about MUSHcode may read Amberyl’s MUSH Manual which is available on Internet.”

MUSHes combine literary skills and creativity with roleplaying. Building and coding also get thrown into the MUSH mix. All of this combines to make an enjoyable experience for those that get into MUSHes.

Summary of “Applying for Wizardhood” by Selina Kelley

Selina Kelley worked on ProphecyMUD and Imaginary Realities.

When filling out an application to be an admin (Immortal or Wizard) on a MUD, keep the following in mind.

 

• Don’t misrepresent who you are or your skills.
• Make your answers specific to the MUD you’re applying to. Don’t use generic answers that could apply to any MUD.
• Tell you’re goals related to adding to that specific MUD. Tell what areas you want to make that fit the MUD’s theme.
• Proofread your application, getting your grammar and spelling correct.
• Make sure your answers wrap to 75 characters.
• Play the MUD, and get to know the people in charge. Be someone they want to promote, and be around.

 

Summary of “Cartoon – The Mud Slinger” by Rebecca Handcock

Unfortunately, these cartoons seem to have completely vanished from the web.

Summary of “Explorers have more fun.” by Lord Ashon

Lord Ashon wrote zMud scripts and designed for WheelMUD.

“Let me tell you a little about my hobbies. First and foremost I generally live on my computer, I can make it do things that most would only dream of. Secondly, I play muds. I have for years, and probably will for many more. The last hobby that I have got that really matters to you is that I program. I can write code as well or better than your coder. So, are you scared yet?”

Zmud allows for scripting, and hence writing bots, and as a Computer Science major as a university, he has more time on his hands than you or your entire staff combined. His purpose is not to play your game or roleplay. His purpose is to defeat your game.

I may be annoying and a problem to you, but I love your system, and want it to challenge me. I explore your system.

Summary of “On the Treatment of Coders” by Sanvean

Sanvean was an Overlord for Armageddon MUD.

“Coders are the unicorns of the mudding world, rarely glimpsed and ardently pursued.”

Follow these steps to keep your coders happy.

 

1. Keep communication clear and detailed, especially about desired features. Be clear about syntax and usage of desired features. For bugs, give detailed descriptions of how the feature should work and how it is working, now. Include as many details as possible in bug reports, including detailed steps on reproducing the bug. For bugs, include error messages if possible. Also, make sure coders let each other know what they are working on, or have changed. Generally, only one coder should work on any specific task at a time.
2. Only work on tasks that players want and will use. Bug reports and requests from players shown to the coders will go a long way toward convincing them that the features will be used. There should be an overall goal (design plan) that new features fit into. Make this weeks changes aren’t only there to undo last week’s mistakes.
3. “Share the work: Do as much of the grunt work as you can for the coders, including helping thoroughly test, providing help files and documentation, and fleshing things out.”
4. Praise the coders’ good work. Post the praise in your mailing lists, and in your MUD world news. make sure the coders are getting plenty of credit and acclaim for their hard work. Pass back positive feedback from the players to the coders.

 

Summary of “Playing vs Coding” by Arjen Reudink

Arjen Reudink worked on Nameless MUD and United Dreams III MUD.

Many MUDs have a final quest, that when completed, allow you to chose to become an immortal builder of the MUD, or stay as a regular player. Many players think it would be fun to be an immortal for a short time, then go back to player. However, most admins feel that would give the player too much of an unfair advantage.

The author ran into a situation that he wanted a specific player who was skilled at MUD code to become a wizard, but the player didn’t want to stop playing. Becoming a wizard would ban them from play forever.

The approach the author came up with is that all players can apply to become wizards. If they pass a player’s quiz to make sure they are familiar with the MUD and its theme, they can become a wizard. After they produce and have their first area accepted, they get one player account that is attached to their wizard account. They can continue playing, and be a wizard, but can’t have both the wizard and player avatars active at the same time.

Summary of “Starting a Clan” by Shade of Nessalin

Shade of Nessalin was an overlord on Armageddon MUD.

Clans are a group of players with a common purpose. Clans provide a sense of community and purpose to members.

Conflict provides a source of quests for clans. The conflicts can be violent, or economic, resource scarcity driven, trade related, weather, disease, or some other challenge.

Relations to others, including other clans, should be well defined to prevent confusion.

Define as many NPCs and characters that are roleplayed for the clan as possible. Doing so in some documents only clan members have, even it they are outside the MUD itself will give the members a stronger sense of community and a feeling of inclusion, because they have knowledge only clan members have.

Have short term and long term clan goals that all clan member adhere to. It is okay for the goals to be unachievable. They still make for good related quests.

Summary of “The Only Two Guilds on Your Mud” by Caris

Caris worked on Scialla MUD.

Guilds developed in the Middle Ages in Europe to control prices, treatment of members, and quality of products. They acted a lot like modern day unions.

Career criminals didn’t exist in the Middle Age villages, because once caught too many times, locals or noblemen had them killed. In the cities, fines and imprisonment kept criminals under control.

Career assassins didn’t exist, at all. Though, some soldiers were used as assassins occasionally. Murder was punished by a quick death, and attempted murder with life in prison. That kept assassins at bay.

If a Thieves’ Guild did exist, then here are some of the features it would need.

• It would need a meeting place that changed frequently, because people were nosy in medieval times, and would quickly figure out where the bad guys were hanging out.
• The government would need to be corrupt. “Most monarchs would have reacted badly to the idea of thieves operating with knowledge of the police. Bribes were accepted and even tolerated for spying, smuggling letters, and other minor infractions, but serious crimes wouldn’t have been tolerated for long.”
• There would need to be some way to keep the local populace quiet.

 

Thieves guilds couldn’t really have existed in the Middle Ages, which is when most MUDs are set, historically. They could and do exist in modern times, though.

It looks like Assassins guild have never existed in all of history. That might be out of fear of others knowing who they are, or not having any actual common goals. “I’m not against thieves and assassins. I just want them to make a little sense.”

Summary of “Cartoon – The Mud Slinger” by Rebecca Handcock

Unfortunately, these cartoons seem to have completely vanished from the web.

Summary of “Don’t Help” by Natalia

Natalia (and her husband Ilya) ran Game Commandos.

The author has suffered from three types of toxic help:

• Power Tripping Help – As an example, a wizard casts all kinds of powerful, helpful spells on you, then brags about how powerful he and his spells are until they expire and you’re bored. “What was the point of this exercise? Power Tripping. You get no help, and the wizard feels like a really great guy.”
• Give ’em a Fish Help – A player comes along insisting he helps you level up. Sometimes you die in the process. Even if you live, and level up, you missed out on the experience of playing the game to level up. The fun parts of the game are missed.
• Tour Guide From Hell Help – When asking for ideas on where to explore, or hunt, a player has you follow them. You end up going 50 steps (that you won’t remember) to get to place three steps away, or other places you’ve already explored. Or at the other extreme, you follow to new locations; do as you’re told; get lots of experience, but have no idea what just happened, or where you’ve been.

 

There are good types of help. “When I ask for ideas on an area to hunt around in, just tell me a name and perhaps a general direction. Telling me “recall then 7e,5s,2e,s,2e,s,d,s,11e, get a boat, e, e, and you are there” does me very little good. Maybe tell me to try going through the woods southeast of town, keeping a lookout for a moat and drawbridge would be better. Tell me what I might see along the way. Warn me one or two things to watch out for. That is fine. Maybe even give me an errand to run for you (“Hey, bring me back that nice rod from the shaman on the second floor, will ya? I will pay for it.”). It could make things interesting without giving away the farm.”

When asked about game mechanics, giving your opinion might not be the best help, but doesn’t hurt. Give advise, and let the person needing help make up their mind on what advise to take.

Some players are not like the author. They are overly needy. Please don’t get mad at every player that asks for help, just because some can’t do even simple tasks without asking for help.

Summary of “Fingerprints” by Wes Platt

Wes Platt created OtherSpace MUSH.

Story-focused MUDs must allow players to interact with the story in ways the creator of the MUD does not intend. Don’t force everyone to experience the story only in the way you want them to.

Players should be allowed to participate in the creative process. “Let them share the fun of fleshing out the universe. This does two things quite effectively: First, it takes some of the workload off of you and your staff, and second, it puts the participants’ fingerprints on the universe and gives them a sense of ownership and impact.”

You can’t be as creative, as you and your player base working together can be. They bring experiences and ideas to the creative process that you don’t have. At lease, let them pitch ideas that you can use (or not use.) First, you have to trust your players.

If a participant’s idea is accepted, give them credit in an online newspaper, on your website, or in some other way.

Summary of “Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit Muds” by Richard Bartle

Richard Bartle arguably had more influence on the development of MUDs and virtual worlds than any other creator of his generation. This article was extensively read and studied by creators for over a decade. I recommend reading the full text at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247190693_Hearts_clubs_diamonds_spades_Players_who_suit_MUDs. Richard Bartle wrote the first MUD.

There are four non-exclusive approaches to playing MUDs: action, interaction, world-oriented, and player oriented. Muds also fall into the categories of social MUDs and game-like MUDs.

Because of their history, most MUDs are considered games. However, they have a lot of practical application for non-game use. Even the MUDs that are formally games could sometimes fall under the categories of pastimes, sports, or entertainment, rather than game.

This paper came out of the summary of a six month long “heated discussion” among the most involved players of a prominent commercial MUD. The MUD allowed PvP play, but that didn’t convince players that it was really a game, and not something else.

People generally enjoyed the following about playing MUDs.

• Achieving self-set goals within the game, such as leveling
• Exploration of the game world, and eventually the game mechanics
• Socializing and possibly roleplaying in the MUD
• Imposing on others in the game. Occasionally, this is in helpful ways, but usually not nice

The labels given these four types of players in this paper are: achievers, explorers, socializers, and killers. “An easy way to remember these is to consider suits in a conventional pack of cards: achievers are Diamonds (they’re always seeking treasure); explorers are Spades (they dig around for information); socialisers are Hearts (they empathise with other players); killers are Clubs (they hit people with them).”

 

If the balance of player types gets out of balance, then all types of players start leaving the game. Keeping the balance between all four types of players is essential to server player growth and sustainability.

The author includes a diagram showing the balance of Acting vs Interacting, Players vs the World, and Killers, Achievers, Explorers, and Socializers. The point being that Achievers like acting on the world, Explorers like interacting with the world, Socializers like interacting with other players, and Killers like acting on players.

Equilibrium of player-type balance, infers a constant number of each type of player, not necessarily equal numbers of each type of player.

The balance of Players vs World and Interacting vs Acting can be changed by how the MUD is written. Number of social commands, size of the world, depth of help system, depth of leveling and class system, the number and complexity of in-game puzzles, and even how many quality builder you have can all affect the style of play emphasized and encouraged by your MUD.

Currently MUDs fall into one of two categories: game-like and social. The distinction is so strong, that many social MUDs are not called MUDs, but MOOs, MUCKs, and MUSHes–collectively MU*.

Here is a overview of typical player type interactions.

• Achievers vs Achievers – friendly competitors
• Achievers vs Explorers – Look down on explorers, but find them useful, sometimes.
• Achievers vs Socializers – “Typically, achievers will regard socialisers with a mixture of contempt, disdain, irritation and pity, and will speak to them in either a sharp or patronising manner. Occasionally, flame wars between different cliques of socialisers and achievers may break out, and these can be among the worst to stop: the achievers don’t want to lose the argument, and the socialisers don’t want to stop talking!”
• Achievers vs Killers – Achievers dislike killers.
• Explorers vs Achievers – Explorers consider themselves the next step above achievers.
• Explorers vs Explorers – Explorers like knowledgeable explorers, and dislike unskilled ones.
• Explorers vs Socializers – Explorers tolerate socializers if the are impressed by the explorer’s achievements.
• Explorers vs Killers – Explorers find killers to be tiresome, though an interesting source of information about the killing craft. Irritated explorers tend to be far more deadly than killers.
• Socializers vs Achievers – Socializers tend to like to talk about achievers, not talk to them.
• Socializers vs Explorers – They tend to both like to talk, but about different things.
• Socializers vs Socializers – They love talking. Give them a topic as an ice breakers, and get out of their way.
• Socializers vs Killers – Socializers have a strong distaste for Killers.
• Killers vs Achievers – Achievers are Killers’ natural prey.
• Killers vs Explorers – Killers avoid Explorers, because they are dangerous and don’t care if they get killed–not fun.
• Killers vs Socializers – Killers find Socializers fun to kill.
• Killers vs Killers – They avoid each other in combat, because one of them will suffer a loss of reputation.

 

More killers means less of all other types of players. More socializers means more killers. More achievers means more killers. More socializers tends to encourage more socializers to join.

MUDs tend to fall into four categories.

1. “Killers and achievers in equilibrium.”
2. A socializers dominated MUD.
3. All types in equilibrium.
4. Dead, either because of too many killers, or not enough socializers to make it fun for other socializers.

Types one and two are the most common, successful types of MUD.

 

“To answer the questions posed in the preface:

Are muds

1. games? Like chess, tennis, D&D?
   Yes – to achievers.
2. pastimes? Like reading, gardening, cooking?
   Yes – to explorers.
3. sports? Like huntin’, shooting’, fishin’?
   Yes – to killers.
4. entertainments? Like nightclubs, TV, concerts?
   Yes – to socialisers.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary of “Simulation versus Shoot-em-up” by Krrx

Krxx was a storyteller on Armageddon MUD.

The secret to intensive and realistic MUD roleplaying is proper preparation. Convince the players to think of the game as a simulation–as in a flight simulator. Simulations are complex, are hard to master, require self-imposed limits, rewards are delayed, and success is a bit more vague.

If you attempt to play a simulator with the same attitude and prep as you play a shoot-em-up style game, you will crash-and-burn.

When playing a roleplay-intensive game, spend more time imagining what you read, and learning the game itself. Stay in character when making decisions. Do what your character would do, not what you want to do. “Be prepared to have a major sense of achievement only after you have worked at something for a while; do not expect instant success. There will be quiet times, just as in real life.” The experience, rather than XP should be your gauge of success.

As a creator, flesh out the MUD, thoroughly. Provide helpers to help new players learn the MUD. Make sure players know that just because the game lets a character do something, doesn’t mean the player WOULD do that thing. Give players small rewards along the way to keep game play fun. Also, hide standard measures of success, like skill percentages. The goal is an intensive roleplaying experience, not shoot-em-up experience.

Summary of “Spatial Representation of a Virtual World” by Raph Koster

 

“The heart of a mud is the map: the world the mud represents.” Maps are of two types: room-based models and continuous maps. Room-based describe usually one exit to one entrance for navigating from a map to another map. Continuous maps allow the transition along the whole boarder they share with the neighboring map.

Room-based maps have rooms which are nodes, and those nodes have links to other nodes. The links are called exits. Labeling a link as north or up gives the illusion of space, but they are just links to nodes stored in a database.

Most MUDs do not have an established scale associated with rooms. In fact, in many MUDs, if the map was put on paper, it would look illogical and fold back on itself in impossible ways because of inconsistent room sizes. Individual area (collections of rooms) might map out well, but if multiple areas were put on the same map, the inconsistencies of size become apparent.

This means that areas usually only have a limited number of exits to adjacent areas. Geographic realities prevent every room adjacent to a different area from having an exit to the next area over. Often a road is used to connect areas, for simplicity.

Wilderness areas often do have consistent room sizes, but this is for memory management of large areas. A player’s room description is based off the coordinates of the room in the wilderness.

“The current trend in more cutting-edge mud development is to move away from room-based models in favor of continuous maps. This means that the assumption of spatiality includes the concept of a 2d or 3d space handled with a Cartesian coordinate system. Depending on the implementation, the dataset for the map may be sparse or dense-meaning, the map may actually have data for every point on the grid, or it may only have data for specific landmarks on the grid.”

Graphical worlds tend to use continuous maps more than MUDs do. The downside is that expanding on a continuous world is more difficult than a node-based world. One way around this is to make towns on the world map take the player to a zoomed in town-specific map. Another problem is that there tends to be a lot of boring open space on continuous maps.

“If it is axiomatic that muds are about other people, then a map which keeps people apart is an undesirable thing. Perhaps because of this, the three major commercial graphical environments today all offer instant teleportation facilities for getting quickly from one location to another.”

Summary of “Top Ten Reasons you are coding on the Wrong Mud” by Michael Thompson

Michael Thompson was a coder and a cynic.

 

1. Last time anyone logged in, your 386 CPU was cutting edge.
2. Your version of MUDLIB only crashes 24 times per day.
3. All to posts on your message board contain the word “testing”.
4. The creators are AFK so much, they all include “Idle” in there ranks.
5. You’re on your second room you created, and those are the only two of the supposed 5000+ that actually exist.
6. The discover the admin retired months ago.
7. The MUD has been in pre-alpha for three years.
8. “You posted a question to the learning board on how to code an NPC 3 months ago and you still are waiting on a response.”
9. The new lead of MUDLIB development to 2 1/2 months to complete his training, and has only been onboard for three months.
10. “The head mudlib coder makes entries in the changelog like “Fixed spelling of ‘Gratan’ to ‘Grathan’ in the header comments of /std/npc.c”

Summary of “Adjusting to Altitude” by Sanvean

Sanvean was an admin on Armageddon MUD.

Good immortals are hard to find. The best ones have integrity, imagination, creativity, writing skills, team work skills, knowledge of the MUD, and enough time to contribute effectively.

After a new immortal is selected, they are given access to the game’s documentation and discussion board. Another admin walks them through the admin commands, answers questions, etc.

“People come onto the Armageddon staff at the level of Storyteller. Storytellers run plots and clans, animate NPCs, build (etc.). There’s a bewildering medley of options and expectations for a new immortal, so we assign a primary and secondary mentor, usually staff members who have been around for a while and who can answer questions. A lot of time they’re pointing people to the documentation.”

The documentation could/should include guidelines for procedures and builds, world histories (clan, boles house, and other histories), tutorials for creating objects, NPCs rooms, and other docs. The mission statement should come first.

All new immortals need an assigned task. That task should be gears to their knowledge and skill level. Have them help with a plotline that is in progress, or give them the task of handling an NPC in a plotline. Make the first tasks ease enough that the new immortal can handle them.

Feedback is important, but not as important as providing guidance, teaching and a mentor to the new immortal. make sure all the current staff knows who the new immortal is and what they have assigned to them. Let the new immortal give an a self introduction on an internal discussion board, including experience, interests.

“Choose new staff carefully; make sure new staff members have access to the information and resources they need; and work with them on coming up with clear, measurable tasks so they know what you’re expecting from them”

Summary of “Bringing Women to the Game” by Dalaena

Dalaena had MUD’ed for 3 1/2 years and gamed for 15. She played on ThreasholdRPG at the time of the article’s writing.

“Women are essential to the health and growth of any excellent role-playing game, for they enhance the romantic elements of any fantasy game. In addition, they can be a strong stabilizing force in any guild, clan, or religion.”

The author proceeds to explain what attracts her to a game, and might attract some other women to a MUD.

A game needs to allow building of intangibles, such as, a religion or a clan. If the gods of the religion all get along perfectly, there is no reason to chose one for your character to support over others. The religion setting is static, and not growing.

In the authors favorite MUD, the religion system has followers instantly gain enemies and allies. There are in-game consequences to joins a religion. MUDs with static religions end up with male-led cleric guilds, but MUDs with dynamic religious settings end up with female-let cleric guilds.

Personalization is of key importance for women. Women want a “home” in the game. This can be a clan abode, castle, or a small house. They have own it to the extent that they can call it “mine”. They need to be able to write their own description and maybe even code for the game room that is theirs. “My home mud is approximately 40-45% women. There are tons of things to personalize: the character description, houses, clan abodes, and clothing items to name just a few.”

Include lots of fantasy and real food items on the MUD. It provides talking points and discussion material.

Include forums and MUD photo albums on the MUD website to help instill a sense of community, and include a place for players to vent.

The author reminds the reader, not all women have her taste in MUDs, but that 3 1/2 years of observations went into this article.

Summary of “Cartoon – The Mud Wringer” by Rebecca Handcock

Unfortunately, this cartoon appears to have been lost forever, like so many digital copyrighted works.

Summary of “Eating and Drinking in Muds” by KaVir

KaVir, AKA Richard Woolcock had seven years of MUD experience, including writing GodWars and Gladiator Pits.

Eating and drinking is boring spam on most MUDs. “Anyway, last week I had a strange dream (I know, I think about muds too much) in which I discovered that my mud character had gained a fatness rating of 100% from eating too many pot pies from the bakery. Upon waking, I thought ‘actually, that’s not a bad idea’ – and since then I’ve thought about how to make the system a little more interesting.”

You could add rules for protein providing strength and healing, carbs providing energy, fat providing energy and vitamins, minerals/vitamins providing healing and health, and water being water. Add categories to your characters for hunger, weight, metabolism, blood clotting/healing, immune system, and dental health.

“Then you can sit back and watch with amusement as the obese hack-n-slashers waddle around with rotten teeth and major hair loss!”

Alternatively, these rules could be optional, if you don’t want to irritate your players.

Summary of “Identity Theft and Mudding” by Anthony Haslage

Anthony Haslage was Ntanel StormBlade at MudWorld.

Some people take the long route to gain wisdom and respect. Others try to take a shortcut, to respect by identity theft. This approach skips the wisdom, and the respect is stolen.

Case 1 – you pretend to be someone you are not, to scare the admins of a server into obeying the license of the code base they are using. “However, as helpful as you were trying to be, you committed a crime the FBI (In the U.S.A.) loves to prosecute, be happy you did not go any further.”

Case 2 – you pretend to be someone you are not, and start getting offers to fix code bases on various MUD servers. You copy one when you are compiling a bug fix, and try to delete your tracks from the server. The MUD owner realizes you stole the code and reports you to the person-you-impersonated’s employer or the FBI. You get your internet cut and the FBI shows up at your door.

“Think because you are a minor nothing can happen to you? Well, guess again! In the U.S.A. you can get atleast 3 months in a Detention Hall. As an adult, the time you spend in prison could be many years. Either way, after you get out, it will be hard to get another internet account with many companies.”

ISPs have access to a blacklist of hackers, and can deny you service when they realize what you have done.

Do the following checks to detect identity thieves.

• Ask their real name.
• Ask for the link to their codebase and their MUD/website.
• Have them log in to your server from the website they are associated with.
• They should not seem like a bot.
• “Last and most important, they will answer quickly and accuratly without losing any patience. You can tell of alterior motives when someone loses patience and/or demands they are who they say they are without proving it first.”

 

Report hacking by calling your local FBI office in the USA. Provide logs, DNS/ISP info, and be prepared to give them your hard drive as evidence. Be sure to make a backup of your drive, as you might not see it again.

Summary of “Keep on Dreaming” by Kazumba

MUD’ers dream of creating their own MUD. Using a stock MUD codebase, and trying to modify it enough to make it yours is doomed to failure. The author started with three divisions of labor: “game development, technical setup, and implementation planning.” He attempted to write documents from the two divisions of labor, himself, with the plan to turn the documents over to an implementer.

The author defined the

• MUD theme (i.e. fantasy cyberpunk),
• the focus (i.e. detective work),
• consequences (high level implementation requirements),
• unique features (game play features that are unique to this MUD), and
• general issue(game rules that need implementation).

 

This resulted in a 50-page manual that feels incomplete. The author became overwhelmed by the project and shelved it.

Summary of “Potlaching Your Way to Riches” by Jessica Mulligan

Gaming magazines (and websites) have a conflict of interest, because the require the game publishers’ marketing dollars. GDS and E3 game conferences aren’t much better. It’s all a modern potlatch.

“A potlatch is a ceremony of giving invented by Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest. The object was for the ‘giver’ to create status for himself by really giving; the more goods you gave away, the higher your status. Skins, smoked salmon, slaves… just pile it on and keep doing it until the recipient screams in pain. If you were invited to a potlatch and showed up for the festivities, you were not only under an obligation to accept the gifts, you were also required to reciprocate later on. In this manner, even a poor Native American could spend all year creating wealth, then potlatch it to the right people and climb the social ladder.”

The giver always had the inferred responsibility to give more than they were given. You can imagine the results. In the game industry, there’s a massive quid pro quo going one between reporters and the game industry.

The author points out the list of judges involved in several game awards, don’t have any development experience, but have lots of experience being paid advertising dollars by the game publishers.

Summary of “The Ascendancy of Mass Market Games” by Bob Mandel

Bob Mandel was a writer and reviewer for Adreneline Vault.

The trend is clear that gaming on computers is moving from hardcore users to the mass market, casual users. Mass market games have the following characteristics.

• System requirements kept low
• Game has no need for updates or patches to run
• Solo and online play options
• Minimal learning curve, and no need for a manual
• Easy-to-understand rules
• Intuitive controls
• Early gameplay likely to generate positive reviews
• Minimal sex and violence toward humans
• No gore or blood splatters
• Emotionally uplifting theme
• Whole family appeal

 

Mass market buyers don’t have high-end computers; can’t patch or update their computers; and don’t have high-end internet connections. They have little time or interest in learning a complex game. Most are also not single, and need games that are family friendly.

The casual consumer wants a simple, relaxing experience. Often then game is a shared experience with other family members. They want a simple, quick experience similar to going out to eat at a fast food restaurant or movie theater.

Hasbro Interactive has led the push for mass market game creation. Sierra Attractions been a close runner up. “The major children’s oriented PC game companies are Lego Media and Mattel Interactive, both of which draw extensively off of their successful toy lines”

Even with these big companies in the market, most mass market games are by smaller companies with shareware or online sales models.

Mass market games tend to cluster in the following genres: retro arcade, puzzle, adventure, racing, board game, and construction simulations.

Some game companies worry that they’ll lose street cred, if they make too many mass market games. Also, hardcore gamers are upset that mass market games are destroying their favorite pastime.

Mass market gamers are not dumber than hardcore gamers. They have different interests than hardcore gamers. Maybe at a future time, there will be less of a distinction between games created for hardcore gamers and casual consumers.

Summary of “Theories About Players” by Sire Teige

Sire Teige a Two Towers admin.

Some players will risk anything for the chance to cause emotional harm. They enjoy it.

The game client will be hacked, and can’t be trusted.

Players will find and use game exploits.

“Players will hate the game Yet they will play it endlessly, often more than those who claim to like it. They will like the designers even less, considering them the Spawn of Satan. People who volunteer their time to help the community will thus be considered in league with the Devil, and treated accordingly.”

Players won’t do what is in their own best interest, and won’t understand that it is only a game.

Players won’t appreciate updates to the game, and won’t ever feel there have been enough updates.

Nerfing features is despised, but still results in more players when it benefits the game experience.

Players always have unlimited energy to demand justice and freedom of speech.

Players always claim ownership to parts of the game. Forget the EULA.

Predictions:

• Player won’t be helpful.
• Players can’t or won’t use proper English.
• Players will hack and cheat.
• Players like games that consume and destroy their real life time.
• “Players enjoy assaulting evil. This is evident by the fact that they pay money so that something they hate can grow. Updates are released, more players hate it, and more players arrive to cause justice. They polarize themselves against the game. The more polarized they are against the game, the quicker the game itself grows, and hence the quicker the evil grows. Evil, being by definition against a player’s best interest, is thus spawned by the players.”
• Players love to be vocal in angry, and incoherent ways.
• “Players are sadists,” demanding more updates, even though the hate updates.
• Players exploit bugs, even if they know it will get them banned.
• Players hate games shutting down, despite hating the game.
• “There should be an anti-player, that is, someone who is similar to a player yet exhibits opposite properties. This is similar to matter and antimatter in physics. These anti-players, also called people, would be intelligent, pursue their best interests.”

Summary of “A Revisitation of Help” by Robert Boileau

Robert Boileau was a programmer for The Inquisition MUD.

“When I began the MUD for which I work, I made a resolution to never have obsolete or missing help files.

“Oh, how naive I was.”

The MUD brought on an immortal specifically to help players learn the MUD system, and the first thing she did was explain to us, that the 800+ page help system needed fixing. The following is a description of the fixed help system.

The new help system provides a completely editable online interface for updates. All database entries have a “last updated” value, and a “number of views” value, neither of which are editable by admins to maintain honest values.

Here are the editable values in each help file row in the database:

• Level – minimum level that is required to view this file
• Keywords – searchable words to find this file. Partial words should work, too.
• Name – “the name by which the help file is most easily referenced”
• Brief – “used when the players ask for an index of a word or phrase”
• Class – the command, or skill prerequisites necessary to understand what abilities are needed to use this skill
• Syntax – standardized syntax required to use this skill (ie “look (at/in) [object or person]”)
• Text – The main description in the help file.
• Index – the parent category this file belong to
• Imminfo – admins/immortal viewable info, not for regular players to know
• Seealso – links to other related help files
• Key – boolean value indicating this help file should be displayed above less important, but related, help files.

 

The ‘help’ command by itself shows the main categories of help organized in a tree using the index values. Names are displayed with under the index with a brief description. To view the brief description of look, they would use “help index look”. It would look like the following.

Look
  Information about how to use the look command.

To view the full description, the player types “help <file name>”. To view the brief descriptions of all files in a category, the player types “help <category name>”

 

Here is the verbose display format of a specific help file copied from the original article.

---

Help file for LOOK

Class: Command
Syntax: look
        look (at/in) [object or person]
        look [direction]

Look is used any time you wish to view something, be it the room (look without an argument), a book/board (look book, or look board), a specific item or person (look name), or a direction. It is versatile, and you may use “at” to specify an object or person if you wish.

You may specify a particular instance of something to look at also, such as “look 2.book” to look at the second book.

See also: GLANCE, PEEK

(Subject area: information Last modified: Sat Jul 7 07:11:28 2001)

---

 

Soundex matching for phonetically similar (misspelled) words should be part of the help search.

“If there is no help file found, and no phonetic match, the help file request is sent to all Immortals online, and logged in a file which I view daily.”

Summary of “Cartoon – The Mud Simmer” by Rebecca Handcock

Unfortunately, this cartoon appears to have been lost forever, like so many digital copyrighted works.

Summary of “Frag that Knight” by Jenna, Shattered World

Jenna was a Shattered World MUD admin.

MUDs can serve as excellent platforms for mini-games. Shattered World MUD has several creative mini-games embedded in it. One is essentially Quake in MUD format.

“To create this little first-person-shooter, I didn’t have to think up weapons, amour, or healing, because our mud already had them. Likewise, I didn’t need to write a combat system or player descriptions. I didn’t need to do anything to create the base of a functioning virtual world, because our mud (and yours) already has it.”

Any genre you can imagine could be written on top of a MUD, including …

• Mudcraft – a large scale battle simulator, complete with castle construction and troop training
• Mud Tycoon – MUDs can have fully functional economies with all businesses owna and operated by players
• Poker & Five Hundred – card games of all types work well on MUDs.

 

All of these mini-games are and should be optional, so only players that enjoy them would play.

Summary of “I Want to Forge Swords” by Author

Sie Ming was also the author of “I Want to Bake Bread”.

For a crafting skill or class, get resources by using in-game skills like:

• Gathering – from the wild, and might include abilities like mining, plant lore, electronics. Leveling gathering abilities might result in more or higher quality items found.
• Looting – some items could require higher looting levels to remove properly
• Purchasing – encourage player-player purchases, and make sure items are available in the proper quantities for the needs of the community

 

Design the location of resources properly. “First of all, make locations meaningful. If movement between two locations is quick and easy, then they are –for all intents– the same location.” Make resources location specific. Proper design of location and travel mechanics can naturally lead to Trade, Trade Routes, Trade Houses, Pirates, Bandits, Wagon Trains, and Mercenaries in your game.

Have a diversity of resources. For example, not only hides, but rabbit pelts, antlers, dragon scales.

Make sure the things crafted have a diversity of traits. For example, don’t have level 1 – level 10 armor. Have various armors with some having features that vary, such as weight, flexibility, colors, protections of various sorts, etc. This means that there are several types of great armors with trade offs that players need to choose from based off what the armor was crafted from.

There shouldn’t be just one best type of some item that everyone in the game wants, to the exclusion of all other types of that crafted armor.

Consider adding a “quality” attribute to your items. “The quality of the resources used by a crafter would effect the quality of the item produced. At high levels of ability, you might need higher quality resources to produce certain items. This could be accomplished by using only high quality resources or by using a larger –perhaps much larger– number of normal quality resources. This usage of a larger number of normal quality resources would be an expression of the crafter sifting through to find the best or distilling lower quality resources into higher.”

Crafters could have the options for speed vs quality.

Quality resources could be located in dangerous locations. Quality could result in higher selling prices or resources and final crafted products.

Blueprints add another dimension to the Crafter’s class. They could start with some basic blueprints/recipes and gather more through purchases, looting, in-game research, and copying from other players.

Blueprints could also have a quality score associated with them. “The quality of the blueprint might affect the resources consumed when making the item, the quality of the item produced, the amount of time it takes to make the item, the ability level required to make the item, the chance of succeeding at making the item, or anything else that makes sense in your game.”

Blueprints of low quality, might require generic resources to use. High quality blueprints might require specific rare items to follow.

The crafter’s research process might include buying a “research log”. Tools and resources could iteratively be used to increase the quality of the research log, until finally the research log gains the custom blueprint status. Test with questions/answers could be part of the research process. Simple items would require few rounds of research, while complex item blueprints would require much more research.

Make the actual crafting process relaxed, rather than complex or stressful. Combine the blueprint, resources and a fixed amount of game time to have a chance of success when crafting items.

Give players to ability to cancel crafting projects. Also, give them the ability to use multiple blueprints to engage in multiple crafting projects at the same time. Base crafting time off resource quality, blueprint quality, and complexity of the item being crafted. Allow crafting to continue even when the player is logged out.

Remember the crafter should be able to make as much money as other classes. Balance the costs and selling prices appropriately.

Complex crafting projects could require players to switch tools, add additional ingredients, do quick quality tests. This prevents all projects from being completed with the player offline.

“Players should be given a means of specifying the amount of attention that their character is giving to Item Quality, Ability Training, and Construction Speed.”

Summary of “Mudding with Language Barriers” by Ntanel StormBlade

Nthanial Stormblade ran MudWorld.

The author did not come from a home that spoke standard American English, and had to expend a lot of effort to learn to speak clearly so that everyone understood what was said. The author also spends a lot of time avoiding typos and any sentences that could unintentionally offend other people.

A lot of users on MUDs speak in abbreviations, and emojis. This is not clear language and could lead to misunderstandings.

Summary of “Second Semi-Annual MU* Excellence Awards:” by Andy Awards

The first MU* Awards was held April 7, 2001. It was three hours long. The second was to be held on October 6, 2001.

Here are the winners from the first awards ceremony.

 

• Best Overall: OtherSpace
• Best Fantasy: Aether
• Best Sci-fi: Otherspace
• Best Social: M*U*S*H
• Best Horror: Cajun Nights
• Best Other Genre: Chicago MUSH
• Most Original: Chicago MUSH
• Most Helpful Staff: Aether
• Most Newbie-friendly: Firan

 

Summary of “Role playing” by Luis Branco

Luis Branco was a 22-year-old MUDder from Portugal. He was tall and liked girls.

A touching tribute poem to role playing.

Summary of “Anonymity at its best” by Anonymous

A short essay about how you don’t know who or what an anonymous person is. The author likes it that way.

Summary of “Coping with change” by Selina Kelley

Selina Kelley was an editor for Imaginary Realities, and spent time on Prophecy MUD.

What change happens on a MUD that you don’t like, first approach the admin/builder in charge of the change to get all the facts, and voice your concern. They post publicly, if that has no desirable effect.

Don’t get angry. Take a deep breath, and take a reasonable approach.

Make sure everyone in the discussion knows the facts.

Don’t make threats. Threatening to leave the MUD will not get the change you want.

Summary of “Just Give Me a Game, Please” by Jessica Mulligan

Players want games. They don’t want is “Art” disguised as justice systems. Entertainment should be first priority, not forcing the players into a designers vision of a masterpiece.

“This argument of Art versus Entertainment is one that has been going on for hundreds of years among creative sorts, and I’ve seen it flare up in computer gaming in a major way at least three times in the last fifteen years. It’s something of an ‘elite vision versus doing-it-for-the-money’ thing. In general, the argument revolves around the antagonistic and opposing views that one should either constantly strive to create Art or, conversely, strive to create Entertainment.”

Entertainment is scowled at, while Art is praised. However, people remember entertainment, but not “Art”. As an example, most people don’t remember Thomas Kyd, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, Christopher Marlowe, or Inigo Jones–all great Artists. The entire world remembers their entertainment contemporary, William Shakespeare.

Much of the game design these days, is really thinly veiled “Art”, and not entertainment or entertaining. For example, game designers are constantly implementing non-consensual PVP systems in the name of “community”, even though players clearly don’t want it.

Summary of “Seeds of Inspiration” by Wes Platt

Wes Platt (AKA Brody) created OtherSpace MUSH.

Building a completely uniquely themed MUD/MUSH is possible, but it is easier for players and creators to mix concepts and ideas from previously existing themes to come up with a new, easily-understood theme.

OtherSpace MUSH came from a desire to create something as visionary and unique as Star Wars. “As I grew up, I came to learn that George Lucas didn’t just weave Star Wars out of the ether. Although the characters and races and worlds are his own, they had their genesis in the movies of Kurosawa and the myth theories of Joseph Campbell and the swash buckling movie matinees of the mid-20th Century.”

OtherSpace took inspiration from many sources including Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Jurassic Park, Philip K. Dick, Romani culture, Battlestar Galactica, and even a Discovery channel documentary.

“The frontier may be new, but for those traveling the strange land, it helps to see things that make them comfortable, that give them some sense of familiarity. And you can also use that comfort to throw new twists on old ideas.”

Summary of “The Seven States of Gamer Development” by Eric L. Rhea

 

1. The Unwilling – They’re burned out
2. The Newbie – New to the game, excited, and clueless
3. The Apprentice – A beginner, but well on their way to understanding what needs to happen
4. The Strategist – “Individuals who seek to maximize their efficiency within the game state.”
5. The Tactician – Have progressed to the level of organizing large events.
6. The Designer – Knows he world, too well, and wants to enrich it
7. The Creator – Has reached “gamer enlightenment”, and desires to give back to the community. They create new games, build worlds, and “writers of books and expansions”.

 

Types of gamers, given classifications from above.

1. • Griefer – tactician / designer
   • Achievers – strategist / tactician
   • Explorers – apprentice
   • Competitors – tactician
   • Socializers – designer
   • Killers – tactician
   • Fan Contributor – deesigner
   • Game Designer – creator
   • Quitter – unwilling

 

Summary of “To P, or not to P (-Kill that is)?” by Ilya

Ilya used to run Game Commandos.

There is a great divide between PvP’ers and non-PvP’ers. They either hate or love PvP.

PK’ers feel non-PK’ers are wimps. Non-PK’ers say, they don’t like it, because they’re not good at it.

The author doesn’t play purely PvP games, and does not believe it to be anything to do with being a poor PvP’er. The author just prefers thinking and strategy games. Also, combat is not relaxing, and relaxation is often the reason the author plays games. Also, games where there isn’t a competition are more fun to the author.

“Are players who don’t enjoy full-on PK a bunch of pink-pad lamer wusses who just can’t hack it in the full-time total-war body slamming chew-you-up-and-spit-you-out world of 100% PK? Maybe. If PK’ers find comfort in thinking that, then I wish them all the comfort in the world!

“For me, at least, I avoid full-on PK because I like games more thought-based than gland-based, games where I have a great deal of control over game play circumstances, and games where you don’t need to take away from other players to get ahead yourself.”

Summary of “A Face in the Crowd” by Wes Platt

Wes Platt (AKA Brody) created OtherSpace MUSH.

New players on roleplaying MUSH’s will find it easiest to get started, if they join an existing group of active players. Starting a “lone wolf” style character, rarely leads to many roleplaying opportunities.

On OtherSpace, the following are good organizations to join.

• The Vanguard military
• The Demarian Senate
• Sanctuary’s security force
• The bounty hunters guild
• The Boromov crime family
• The Martian Legions military
• The Cabrerra crime organization
• The Nall Clawed Fist Fleet

 

“If you’re reading this and you run an original-theme game, take heed: Don’t underestimate the power of groups. Give people fairly easy slots to fill – the shallow end of the pool – before throwing them into the deep end. They can dive into murkier water after they learn to swim in your pond.”

For new players, assign Newbie Helpers, provide group information, make sure groups are welcoming to new players, and give groups activities and quests.

Summary of “Cartoon – The Mud Slimmer” by Rebecca Handcock

This cartoon has been lost to the digital void–probably gone forever.

Summary of “Choosing a Setting” by Delphine T. Lynx

Choosing a setting is first huge hurdle to overcome when designing a MUD. Start by picking from Fantasy, Historical, Horror, or Science Fiction. All of these genres can be further broken down into subcategories. Historical are the most difficult to prepare for, because factually in accurate descriptions will sour the game for history buffs. Horror is extremely difficult to pull off, because you must pull off the emotional responses (terror, intrigue, and suspense) in you players that make it into horror. Science fiction and fantasy are easier to pull off, and allow for a great deal of flexibility.

When choosing from the above genres, ask your self:

• Who is your intended audience?
• What type of player interaction do you want to see?
• What excites you, personally?
• What are the opinions of people you know who you’d like to have play your game?

 

Here are a break down of possible subcategories of the above genres.

• Fantasy – Myth & Legend, Society of Magi, Magic as a ‘rumor’, and Every Day Magic
• Historical – Ancient History, Ancient Greece or Rome, Medieval or Renaissance Europe, and Modern World History
• Horror – Paranormal, Mystery (with horror themes), Classic (vampires, caves, “evil men with weapons”), Hunted (running from a overwhelming power like a corrupt government)
• Science Fiction – Science History (“What if King Arthur had the machine gun?”), Classic, Cyberpunk, Espionage/Crime (Jame Bond)

 

“A last, unmentioned type is one that combines two or more of the above. Excellent examples of this include the Star Wars Trilogy (Rare magic use with classic Science Fiction), The Matrix (a Hunted setting along with manifestations of extraordinary talent) and, perhaps, Final Fantasy, with it’s combination of magic, fantasy and modern inventions.”

Summary of “Dump Alignment Now” by Ilya

In most MUDs, evil and good are merely defined by whether you kill “good” or “evil” NPCs. The real world is much more complex than that.

Alignment systems typically tell you want team a player is on in a global conflict. There’s team Good and Team Evil, and nothing really distinguishes between the two teams.

“It’s my idea that a more convenient and workable system would endow groups with conflicting goals, dreams, aspirations, etc, while avoiding the good/evil designations altogether. Perhaps even add in some benefits or debilitations based on the accomplishment of these goals.” Motivational goals could be to protect nature, protect resources, or change the use of resources from decorative jewelry to weapons and armor.

In a goal/motivation based system, there should be some tangible benefit to moving the world closer to the player’s goal. Small rewards should come from each small step toward the bigger goal.

Summary of “Dweezel’s Guide for the Beginning Thief” by Raven

Raven was the admin for Dartmud.

“The successful thief is usually the descendant of past generations of dishonest, but less successful ancestors. You may not be a successful thief, but if you are quiet, observant, and clever, perhaps some day a niece or grandson might distinguish him or herself. You may wish to keep a secret journal of useful information to pass down. This is my journal for those who may come after me. Alas, I fear my line is lost, so I hope you will consider me your adoptive ancestor.”

Respect the code of “honor among thieves”, but don’t expect other thieves to do the same. If they rob you, learn from the experience. Don’t swear allegiance to any group, unless it gives you a chance to steal their treasure. Never trust a thief that is aligned with any group.

Don’t get caught with thieves tools.Don’t let anyone know you are a thief. Don’t be seen visiting thieves guild headquarters. Don’t associate with thieves that are stupid enough to do these things.

Never reveal thief holes, and watch for enemies at thief holes.

Steal from marks that aren’t there to protect their treasure. If you steal from the young, poor, or defenseless, use it as practice, and return what you stole so others can practice, too.

Steal from drunk gamblers on winning streaks. They won’t notice it. Bribe their croupiers with a few drinks for their help.

Don’t steal from healers. They don’t have anything worth stealing, and it isn’t worth the risk.

Be careful when stealing from nobles. Wedding guest are great targets, if you can get on the guest list.

Don’t get caught sneaking. Sneak rarely. Avoid lit mages and full moons. Watch your marks from the safety rooftops, if possible.

Listen to conversations. This can help you find easy marks, or avoid deadly mistakes.

Bejeweled daggers sell for a lot more than the loose change a noble might have. And remember, a mage that is missing his supplies can’t use them to cast fire at you.

Don’t leave your takings in your inn room. The landlord will find them.

“Again, avoid the population centers when practicing sleight of hand. Start on yourself. You must be able to move the largest object you can palm from pack to hand to floor and back without being noticed before you attempt to filch even a farthing from the hoku shi of a sleeping fuzzy.”

If working as an assassin, never miss on the first shot. If your prey survives, don’t do anything else until you finish the job.

Summary of “Generalized Design Rules when Implementing Content Systems Driven by Players” by Eric L. Rhea

Make sure players cannot place objects in an area, unless it makes sense. “If region A is designated as a cornfield and region B is designated as an advanced city zone, it might be curious to your players as to why in the middle of a city a cornfield blossoms.”

Prevent players from setting up MOB farms.

Carefully craft how player-placed objects can interact with other players (ie theft, defense, etc.)

Player placed objects probably shouldn’t interact with MOBs.

Player placed content can lower the builder’s overhead; be enjoyable to many players; lead to higher player retention; and add more variety to the MUD.