[MUD-Dev] Re: Medievia

[Adam Wiggins <adam#angel,com>]

On Wed, 23 Sep 1998, Koster, Raph wrote:
> > I lump its success into the same category as that of America Online or
> > Microsoft.  Take an incredibly accessable product and invoke 
> > a huge amount
> > of hyper-aggressive marketing on it, and you'll gain a large 
> > user base.
> 
> Is Medievia really that accessible? As I recall, I found it difficult to
> get into (this is in its current incarnation) because:

My brief experience with it was ~3 years ago.  At the time it had a
playerbase of around 80 - 100.

> - there was a lot of spam
> - the color scheme was hideous
> - even the who list was confusing, with many columns
> - the map layout was difficult to follow--there was little sense of
> "welcome area" to it
> - the shift between random mazes, outdoor overhead views, and classic
> room-based areas was disconcerting and jarring
> - there were a lot of unfamiliar commands in the game relating to stuff
> like their party formation system, etc

I consider it "accessable" to the average mudder, not to just anyone.
I found it to be mostly identical to stock diku except everything was more
overdone.  The colors, like you say, the spam (since there are a lot of
people online and a lot of things going on all the time), a map which was
nearly identical to ones I was already familar with (such as the one
AnotherMUD had been using for years and the one found in the "Operation
Overkill II" BBS door game), etc.

I think your average ROM player logs on and says, "Wow, this is just like
what I know, only bigger, brighter, and busier!"  So they stay.

Adam