[MUD-Dev] Re: Ugh, IS Diablo a mud?

[Michael.Willey#abnamro,com]

     ____________________Reply Separator____________________
     Subject:  [MUD-Dev] Re: Ugh, IS Diablo a mud?
     Author:   mud-dev#kanga,nu ("Koster, Raph" <rkoster#origin,ea.com>)
     Date:          9/23/98 3:05 PM

Raph wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Ryan Prince [mailto:jynx_ryn#mindless,com]
>> Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 1998 7:16 PM
>> To: mud-dev#kanga,nu
>> Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Ugh, IS Diablo a mud?
>>
>>Persistant refers to something which is at least INTEDED
>>to keep the effects that are placed on it for the rest
>>of it's life, until something else changes it back.
>>Diablo looses here because it is not persistant, it is
>>meant to be reset often. MUDs on the other hand are only
>>reset when a major addition is being tested or added or
>>it crashed.
>
>Many of the early muds in fact reset the entire world,
>because they were based around the concept of a scavenger
>hunt. You tried to gather as many of the hunt items as
>you could, and drop them in a central location to score
>points. You can still see remnants of this design in
>AberMUDs and their descendants, including the ubiquitous
>town squares in Diku-derivatives... so in fact many of
>the early muds were not really very persistent.

For another Aber-derivative: In the LP world persistence
is mostly an illusion - it's common for the entire world
to be reset every 30 minutes.  The illusion is that it's
done slowly, one object at a time, so as to appear like
it's not happening at all.

With each definition of what is *not* a mud I see more and
more games that most certainly *are* muds that fall into
the "not mud" category, or barely escape it.  A
conventional definition of what a mud is from a few years
ago would have included "text based" and "free" in the
text.  Raph would certainly take offense if told that UOL
was not a mud.  I wouldn't blame him.

I know a few people whose definition of "mud" doesn't
include the Tiny family.  "Glorified Chat" is what I've
heard it called.  The same definition precludes non-game
muds, like one I know that acts as a support group for
cancer victims, one mentioned here occasionally that is
devoted to astronomy, and one a friend works for whose
purpose is to provide an educational environment for people
not able to attend normal classes.

I know this isn't the answer we want to hear, but perhaps
Diablo *is* a mud.  A limited one, certainly, but a mud
nonetheless.